Addressing a meeting on Iran at the annual Munich Security Conference on Sunday, Iran's foreign minister said his country is prepared to move ahead in negotiations over its nuclear program, assuring Western diplomats that Tehran has the political will and good faith to reach a "balanced" long-term agreement.
Zarif told the gathering of the world's top diplomats and security officials that his country and Western nations were at a "historical crossroads" and just beginning to build the trust necessary for a long-term agreement.
"I think the opportunity is there, and I think we need to seize it," he said.
The comments came after Zarif met one-on-one with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the conference Sunday morning.
Zarif said that the US officials’ illusion of dismantling Iran’s nuclear program is preventing Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) from reaching a comprehensive and final deal to settle the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency struck a deal Nov. 11 granting UN inspectors wider access to Iran's nuclear facilities. The deal is parallel to an agreement reached with world powers Nov. 24 in Geneva to have Iran halt its 20-percent uranium enrichment activities in return for an easing of Western sanctions over its nuclear program.
"That's an important beginning, it's not the end of the road," Zarif said of the two deals. "There are important questions and we are prepared to address them."
"What I can promise is that we will go to those negotiations with the political will and good faith to reach an agreement, because it would be foolish for us to only bargain for six months - that would be (a) disaster for everybody," Zarif said.
He said Iran and the international community needed to restore mutual trust, and said Tehran's end goal was "a good solution - a balanced solution." He added that "an unbalanced solution is inherently not stable".
"Believe me, you do not possess the monopoly on mistrust - there is a lot of mistrust in Iran," he told the audience. "Iranians believe, with good reason, that the West wants to deprive Iran of its ability to have access to technology."
Zarif said that "the answer at the end of the day is you need to put aside all narratives and take concrete steps."
