TEHRAN – An Iranian lawmaker has said that Iran will simultaneously continue the nuclear talks and its nuclear program. 

“While we will continue the negotiations, we will continue our peaceful nuclear activities with full force and will not heed the other side’s acts of obstruction in the negotiations,” Mojtaba Yousefi said. 

In remarks to Fars News, Yousefi said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has shown by its behaviors that it is a puppet of the U.S. and Israel. 

The latest round of talks between Iran and the West was held last week in Doha, Qatar. The talks did not result in an agreement. Iran said it will continue the talks. 

The Head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament has said that Iran and the United States have not reached an agreement on the economic benefits of the JCPOA for Iran during their talks in Doha.

Vahid Jalalzadeh made the remarks in an interview with the ICANA news agency published on Saturday.

Iran and the U.S. held indirect talks on Tuesday and Wednesday in Doha through European Union coordinator Enrique Mora.  The talks took place soon after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visited Tehran for talks with relevant Iranian officials.
 
Jalalzadeh went on to say that the negotiating partners almost agreed on concluding the talks to revive the JCPOA in Vienna in March as the two sides had agreed on some details and implemented certain steps, yet the U.S. backtracked and therefore talks came to a 4-month halt.

“The U.S. backtracked on the promises it had made to the European parties, China, Russia and Iran in the same negotiations in Vienna; unfortunately, it broke them and there was a break in these negotiations for about 4 months. And finally, Mr. Mora and Borrell maintained this connection in commuting and exchanging the messages and finally reached the conclusion to continue the negotiations in Doha, Qatar,” the legislator stated. 

The MP said unfortunately Tehran and Washington could not reach an agreement on two issues in Doha: “One is the issue of our economic benefits, and the other is the issue of the ‘red list of the sanctions’. In this regard, we reached a list with the Europeans and the Americans in Vienna, and we said that this list should be removed from the red list, but the Americans said that they will again add these people to the red list if anything comes up,” Jalalzadeh continued.

Mohammad Marandi, an advisor to the Iranian negotiating team at the nuclear talks, has said that the West was compelled to give up some of its positions in recent months and they will be forced to give up other positions in order to resolve the remaining issues.

Marandi added in a press interview that Iran demanded throughout the negotiations that took place in Vienna to give it tangible guarantees. He rejected Western rumors that seeking these guarantees are beyond the nuclear agreement, Al Alam reported. 

Marandi explained that the Americans and Europeans, despite their resistance, were forced to accept the Iranian demands, one after the other, gradually. He explained that the tangible guarantees that Iran is now also demanding are for the continuation of the nuclear agreement and not an issue outside the agreement, because it was America that violated the agreement during Obama's era and during the time of Trump who tore up the agreement, and Biden also refrains from implementing the agreement.

The advisor to the Iranian delegation said arguments by the West that Iran has violated the nuclear agreement are aimed at putting pressure on Iran so that Western countries can extract concessions from it.