Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council lauded the efforts of the country's negotiators in nuclear talks with world powers, expressing the hope that the world will realize Iran favors dialogue.
"Hopefully, the Iranian people's right will be upheld in the negotiations and the world will realize that Iran is a country that prefers dialogue (to confrontation) and that (world powers) cannot reach their objectives by threatening (Iran)," Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Monday.
He further commended the country's negotiating team for their endeavors in the talks with experienced diplomatic delegations from 6 world powers, which he said is "no easy task".
Diplomats from Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) have been negotiating over the past 22 months to end more than a decade of standoff over Tehran's civilian nuclear program once and for all.
Over the past two weeks, the two sides have been holding meetings in Vienna, Austria, to nail down a historic nuclear deal.
They have given themselves until Monday to reach the long-awaited accord. An initial self-imposed deadline of June 30 has been extended three times in the past two weeks.