TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has insisted on the need to terminate all sanctions against Tehran under a possible final deal.

However, Zarif said, Tehran is not ready to pay any price for a lifting of sanctions.

“We want the removal of sanctions, but its price and cost is also highly important to us. We will not accept to have the sanctions removed at the price of national honor and interests,” Zarif said in a speech to students at Kazakhstan’s Law School in Astana on Monday.

On April 2 Iran and the major powers (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) agreed on a framework nuclear deal in Lausanne which is considered a preliminary step to iron out details for a final nuclear accord by June 30.

Zarif who acts as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator with great powers stressed that Iran is willing to develop relations with the Western states but the sanctions policy is an enemy of good relations.

Noting that the Iranian people are not optimistic about the relations with the West, he said the Western states have created many problems for the Iranians and therefore the settlement of the country’s problems with the West needs time.

According to Reuters, as the United States and Iran come closer to a historic nuclear deal, many U.S. states are likely to stick with their own sanctions on Iran that could complicate any warming of relations between the long-time foes.