Tehran Sees NPT Only Base for Talks with World Powers

Mehman-Parast made the remarks in a meeting with managers and editors-in-chief of the Turkish media on Friday.

He further underlined Tehran's preparedness to hold logical talks with the six world powers.

The latest round of talks between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog was held in Tehran on December 13.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced on December 16 that Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency are satisfied with the results of the talks held between the two sides in Tehran.

Salehi said that representatives of Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) focused on drafting a structured plan to remove the dispute over Iranian nuclear program and the two parties were satisfied with the outcome of the talks held in Tehran on December 13.

He said that the IAEA representatives reached an agreement with the Iranian officials on drafting a roadmap for cooperation to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

On December 26, a senior Iranian parliamentary official announced that Iran and the Group 5+1 have not yet reached an agreement over a proper venue for the next round of their talks, and stressed that Tehran will never accept to sit to the negotiating table with the world powers in those states which have supported the western sanctions against Iran.

"No agreement has been made on the venue of the negotiations; Istanbul might be an option, but we will not negotiate with the westerners in those states which have embargoed us," Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi told reporters in Tehran on Wednesday.

He described removal of the sanctions against Iran as a requirement which must considered for Iran's talks with the world powers, and said, "If such an approach is considered as the basis (of talks) then we will be able to come close to an understanding."

"The G5+1 should use past experiences and act upon them, because they will not obtain result if they don't act pragmatically," Boroujerdi cautioned.

The Group 5+1 is preparing for new talks with Iran over its nuclear program.

The talks would be the first high-level negotiations over Iran's nuclear program since June, offering at least the prospect of a thaw in a standoff that has grown increasingly tense in recent months.

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 NPT entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.

Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA's questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.
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