"Today, the inefficiency of the sanctions and pressure tool in limiting the trend of Iran's development and progress has been proved to all, and these sanctions have just boosted the Iranian nation's morale and spirit for self-reliance and insistence on domestic potentials," Zarif said in a meeting with Singaporean Parliament Speaker Halimah Yacob in Tehran on Sunday.
He, meantime, stressed the negative effects of certain inhumane sanctions against Iran, specially in medical and scientific fields, and said, "The continuation of these restrictions will only deepen the Iranian people's pessimism and negative view about the West."
Zarif also referred to the new round of the nuclear talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) to be held in Vienna later this month, and expressed the hope that Tehran's economic and trade exchanges with foreign states would witness a leap after the removal of certain barriers as a result of positive talks between the two sides.
On November 24, Iran and the world powers sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program. They held several round of talks by now and expressed the hope that they will reach a comprehensive deal until July 20.
In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and continue talks with the country to settle all problems between the two sides.
Iran and the six world powers held their fourth round of talks in Vienna on May 14-16. The seven nations have been discussing ways to iron out differences and start drafting a final deal that would end the West’s dispute with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.
The next round of multilateral talks between the senior negotiators of the seven nations will be held in Vienna on June 16 to 20.
