TEHRAN – President Ayatollah Seyed Ebrahim Raisi said on Sunday that Iran will not relinquish its rights in any negotiations amid a highly charged atmosphere in the wake of the submission of the Iranian response to the European Union’s final proposal on the talks in Vienna over reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. 

Speaking at the 17th World Mosque Day meeting held on Sunday morning at the Organization of Islamic Culture and Communication, Ayatollah Raisi said that Iran has received a significant part of its demands from some countries. 

“We will not neglect the rights of the nation in any meeting and negotiations, the government will try to improve the country and resolve the problems with strength. We will not tie people's living to any external factor and will diligently pursue solving the problems of the country and people,” he said, according to a readout of the meeting put out by the Iranian presidency. 

Emphasizing that despite the sanctions and threats, the government will continue the work seriously, President Raisi said, “I say with belief and accurate knowledge of the capacities and capabilities that the future is bright for the country. Today, the war is a war of wills, and the Iranian nation has determined to defeat its enemies, and the Almighty God will definitely help the Iranian nation.”

Iranian lawmaker Qudratullah Hamzeh Shalamzari has praised the Raisi administration’s policy toward the nuclear talks with the West, saying that the administration succeeded in containing the West’s excessive demands.

“The 13th government had favorable and acceptable activities in the field of foreign policy to remove the sanctions and seriously defended the rights of the people,” he said in remarks to Iran’s state news agency IRNA. 

He added, “In the previous government, European and American countries usually put forward proposals in the field of nuclear negotiations, and Iran's negotiating team responded to them by examining them. But with the formation of the 13th government, this procedure changed, and Iran presents its proposals and plans, and the Western side must respond.”

Iran has recently submitted its response to the text the European Union submitted to Iran and called it a “final” draft.

After submitting the response, Iran called on the U.S. to show flexibility. The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, has said that Iran showed much flexibility and America knows that full well. “America knows very well how much flexibility we have shown, now it is the turn of the American side to be flexible. In the recent Vienna negotiations, the American side expressed its verbal flexibility on two issues. This should be in writing. In the third issue and guarantees, we must have America's flexibility. If America shows flexibility, we will reach a point of agreement in the coming days,” he stated.

In a phone conversation with his Omani counterpart on Thursday, Amir Abdollahian stated that if Iran's red lines are upheld, a new phase will begin in Vienna, the venue of the talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.