Iran underlined the transparency and peaceful nature of its nuclear program, and stressed the need for the removal of all sanctions after the end of talks with the world powers.
All Iran’s nuclear activities are transparent and peaceful, Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi told reporters on Wednesday evening.
He added that 90 percent of anti-Iran sanctions have been imposed on the pretext of the country’s peaceful nuclear activities, stressing that all these sanctions are supposed to be lifted at the end of the negotiations with the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany).
Washington and its western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the western embargoes for turning down West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.
Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany clinched a nuclear deal in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24, 2013. The deal came to force on January 20.
Under the Geneva deal, the six countries undertook to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period. It was also agreed that no sanctions would be imposed on Iran within the same timeframe.