‘Achieving agreement in talks dependent on ensuring Iran's interests’

December 1, 2021 - 20:36

TEHRAN - The deputy chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the parliament says if the Western side acknowledges this fact that a success of the Vienna talks is dependent on ensuring the interests of the Iranian people, then there is a hope for success.

However, Abbas Moqtadaei said, if the West loses the opportunity, Iran can use the capacity of the parliamentary ratification - the Strategic Action Law on Protecting the Rights of the Iranian People – which has obliged the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to expedite nuclear program, IRNA reported on Monday. 

Iran and the remaining parties to the 215 nuclear deal – JCPOA – officially started talks in Vienna on Monday after a five-month break. The talks are intended to lift the sanctions on Iran.

Prior to the official talks, preliminary talks were held with some Western parties in recent days.

Moqtadaei said Iranian negotiators act “in accordance with the instructions issued to them at the national level."

The MP from Isfahan stated that the key point for Iran is the issue of ensuring the interests of the Iranian people. 

"If the Western side has come to the logic that if the interests of the Iranian people are not met, Iran will not be forced to make concessions, we can be optimistic about the future of the negotiations. But if they continue to lose the opportunity or ignore the interests of the Iranian people, the Law on Strategic Action to Lift Sanctions and Protect the Rights of the Iranian People, which was adopted last year, will go ahead."

"Therefore, the key issue is for the West and Western countries to accept that reaching an agreement depends on meeting the interests of the Iranian people," he said.

Recalling the history of the Americans in violating their obligations, the deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee noted “as long as the Americans do not accept that they have to abide by norms, international rules and laws” any claim to restore the nuclear deal is “worthless”.

Moqtadaei added the Americans “must first make up for the mistake they have made in recent years, and then the Islamic Republic, after verification, will allow them to act in accordance with what Iran recognizes."

Iran has been insisting that the removal of “illegal and inhumane sanctions” is the catalyst to revitalize the JCPOA. 

Iran has also been seeking a guarantee that the U.S. would not leave the nuclear deal again. 

Writing in the Financial Times on Sunday, Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said, Tehran's first goal is “to gain a full, guaranteed and verifiable removal of the sanctions that have been imposed on the Iranian people.” 

Also in an article posted on the Foreign Ministry website on Monday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said, “Iran is serious, acts in good faith, and considers the practical and tangible result to be the removal of sanctions.”

He said other parties must demonstrate “political will in practice”. 

The foreign minister also said, “I would like to emphasize once again that this opportunity (of negotiations) is not a window that could remain open forever and the U.S. and the three European countries must well understand this. The Islamic Republic of Iran, while making its determined, strong and active diplomatic efforts to remove the oppressive U.S. sanctions, has devised an effective program to neutralize the sanctions in line with its sustainable economic development program.” 

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