Obama comments on nuke deal ‘unacceptable,’ Iran’s Zarif says
Top Iranian envoy says Tehran won’t give in to ‘greedy demands’ as sides powwow for second day
By Stuart Winer and AFP March 3, 2015, 2:30 pm 9
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that his country will never give in to the “greedy demands” of other countries, rebuffing comments from US President Barack Obama on a 10-year curb of Iranian nuclear activities as “unacceptable.”
Zarif’s comments came as he sat down for talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry for a second straight day, as the sides attempt to clinch an elusive deal ahead of a March 31 deadline.
Zarif declared his country would never yield to the “greedy and illogical demands” of the parties involved in the talks, the Iranian Republic News Agency reported.
He also rejected comments made by Obama a day earlier, in which the president argued that a deal that freezes Iran’s nuclear program for at least ten years would be the best available means of keeping Tehran from advancing toward a nuclear weapon.
“It is clear that Mr. Obama’s comments are meant to win US public opinion and counter the propaganda campaign by the Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and that of other radical parties opposed to the negotiations,” Zarif told reporters, according to Iran’s Press TV.
Reports have indicated the US is seeking a deal that would keep Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon for 10 years, before allowing Tehran to ramp enrichment back up.
Netanyahu is slated to give a high-stakes speech to US Congress later Tuesday in which he is expected to stump against the deal being formulated between Iran and six world powers that would ease sanctions on Tehran.
Zarif asserted that the United States had come to understand that sanctions had failed, and vowed that Iran would continue to negotiate for the nuclear rights of the its people, as he returned to the table for the second day of meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Switzerland.
Kerry and Zarif launched their latest round of talks on Monday, and were due to continue negotiating until Wednesday afternoon, when Kerry will fly to Riyadh to meet King Salman.
Few details of the emerging deal have publicly come to light so far, but aides to Netanyahu have threatened that may change when the Israeli leader makes a controversial address to the US Congress later Tuesday.
Kerry and his staff have warned Netanyahu against betraying US trust by revealing classified briefings about the course of the negotiations.
Netanyahu’s lobbying trip to Washington is seen as a last-ditch bid to derail one of the last key goals of Obama’s foreign policy.
The US insists that a deal forged through diplomacy would be the best way to ensure Iran does not acquire a nuclear bomb.
Read more: Obama comments on nuke deal 'unacceptable,' Iran's Zarif says | The Times of Israel
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