Member of Iran Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Mohammad-Hassan Asafari, noted on Sunday that nuclear talks between Iran and the West have only been a waste of time.
“Iran has suffered on both sides through nuclear negotiations [with the West]. Iran is facing the West’s economic sanctions under conditions that it has accepted to stop the progress of its nuclear industry at a certain level due to nuclear negotiations with Europe,” he added.
The lawmaker stated that nuclear negotiations would only be fruitful if the P5+1 group -- comprising the US, Britain, France, China, and Russia plus Germany -- entered into negotiations with their own independent views without being influenced by the US and Israel.
“The continuation of [nuclear] negotiations with the West is by no means expedient under the existing conditions and we don’t need to waste more time [on talks],” he said.
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili and European Union (EU) foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who represents the P5+1 group, met in a follow-up to their previous negotiations on Iran’s nuclear energy program on September 18 in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
They had already met in Moscow in June. The Moscow talks were followed by a day-long meeting between the deputies to Jalili and Ashton, Ali Baqeri and Helga Schmid, in Istanbul on July 24.
The United States, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran argues that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
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