Sextet should take tough decision in nuclear talks

The time has come for the world powers to make a tough decision on Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program, an Iranian deputy foreign minister said.

“If they are supposed to make a tough decision, this is the right time, and this is doable if they are really open to negotiation,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for American and European Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi said in an interview with state TV on Tuesday.

The diplomat, who is also a member of the Iranian team of nuclear negotiators engaged in the talks with six world powers, warned against the ongoing attempts to ruin the talks.

Takht Ravanchi also reiterated that the entire anti-Iran sanctions should be lifted at once in the wake of a final, comprehensive nuclear deal between Tehran and P5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

Iran will never agree that the sanctions would be divided into separate categories or be removed one by one, he underlined.

He further noted that a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear case would be possible before a November 24 deadline, provided that “the Westerners would be really after resolving the problem.”

The senior diplomat also dismissed the idea of extension of the nuclear talks, and said, “We do not think about extending the negotiations and try to achieve our favorable result in the definite time span.”

It came after IRNA on Monday quoted an unnamed Iranian nuclear negotiator as dismissing a report by the Los Angeles Times about the possibility of an extension of the talks.

“The paper’s report is not true and the extension of the negotiations is not on the agenda. All the attention is focused on the serious continuation of the negotiations until November 24,” the official had announced.