Zarif: Talks with G5+1 Should Result in Annulment of All Sanctions

TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif advised the US officials to change their sanctions policy on Tehran, stressing that removal of all sanctions should be the outcome of the talks with the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany).

“The unforgettable part of the final solution (for the standoff between Iran and the West) is the removal of sanctions and if some people imagine that the negotiations will continue while the sanctions are maintained, they are wrong since the result of the negotiations should be the removal of the sanctions and preparation of the grounds for a wiser game among actors on the stage,” Zarif said in a joint press conference with his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt in Tehran on Tuesday.

 “The sanctions are illegal and fruitless and the US should take a different look at the problem to settle it and it shouldn’t exert pressure since pressuring Iran doesn’t yield any result,” he reiterated.

Noting that Iran and the Sextet of the world powers are scheduled to hold the next round of talks in the Austrian capital Vienna on February 18, Zarif said prior to the talks he will also hold a meeting with EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, who presides over the delegations of the world powers in the talks with Iran, in the same city on February 17.

His remarks about sanctions came after a number of US officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, stated in recent days that the sanctions against Iran will be maintained during the talks between Tehran and the world powers.

On January 20, a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran has halted its 20-percent enrichment activity under the Geneva deal. Hours later the US and the EU removed part of their sanctions against Tehran.

R.S