Iran to West: drop sanctions threat

Iran to West: drop sanctions threat
29 May, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday warned Western countries that pressuring Iran with sanctions while continuing nuclear talks would jeopardize chances of reaching an agreement, Iranian media reported.

“This approach of pressure (from sanctions) concurrent with negotiations…will never work. These (Western) countries should not enter negotiations with such illusions and misinterpretations,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said during a news conference broadcast by state network Press TV.

“They have their own wrong conceptions and this will stop them from coming to a speedy and constructive agreement,” he added.

Mehmanparast also said the West should withdraw its “illogical” demand that Iran halt production of uranium enriched to 20 percent, stating that Iran had the right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

The West is concerned that uranium enriched to 20 percent, used for fuel in Iran’s medical reactor, could quickly be turned into more highly enriched weapons-grade material.

However, the Iranian official welcomed negotiations between Tehran and the West, expressing hope the next round of talks in Moscow will bring two sides closer.

Israel dismisses talks

Breaking Israel’s official silence on the second round of talks, held in Baghdad last week, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said they had only produced “more Iranian time-buying.”

“(There was) no significant achievement except for the Iranians having been given another three weeks or so to pursue the nuclear project until the next meeting in Moscow,” he told Israel’s Army Radio in an interview.

“To my regret, I don’t see any sense of urgency, and perhaps it is even in the interest of some players in the West to stretch out the time, which would certainly square with the Iranian interest.”

Israel – the region’s sole nuclear power – has repeatedly threatened to go to war to prevent Iran from going nuclear, fearing an atomic Islamic Republic would undermine its regional military supremacy.

Israel and its Western allies accuse Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.

The Jewish state has been fretting on the sidelines of the talks, while intensively lobbying Washington to take a tougher stance on Iran.
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