Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, has dismissed recent comments by Western states that time is running out for dialogue with Tehran, and said time is running out not for Iran but for the Western powers’ increasing pressure against the Iranian nation.
“Today, what is running out is the time for applying pressure and this approach has failed to bear results,” Jalili said, according to a report in the Fars news agency.
He added that pressure on Iran has not only failed to impede its nuclear progress but has encouraged the nation to localize nuclear technology.
Jalili noted that Tehran’s move on the path of progress is unstoppable.
His comments were made before the UN nuclear watchdog announced that its chief, Yukiya Amano, will visit Iran on Monday and meet Jalili.
Iran and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials met in Vienna this week for their first talks in three months, which were described by the agency as “a good exchange of views.”
According to a statement by the IAEA on Friday, during his Tehran visit Amano will “discuss issues of mutual interest with high Iranian officials.” The statement added that aside from Jalili, there will be meetings with “senior representatives of the Iranian government,” but no further details were provided.
Amano’s visit comes ahead of a meeting in Baghdad, scheduled for Wednesday, between Tehran and a group of world powers, to discuss concerns over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.
Jalili said, according to Fars, that the upcoming talks must revolve around cooperation based on the inalienable rights of the Iranian nation.
“Talks for cooperation, based on the alienable rights of the Iranian nation, must be put on the table in Baghdad,” he was quoted as having said in Tehran on Thursday.
He expressed Iran’s readiness for talks on cooperation, rejecting recent Western claims that time is running out for dialogue.
Earlier this week The Associated Press published a graphic rendering of a pressurestructure that may prove Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. The drawing is believed to have come from inside the Parchin military site near Tehran. It shows a cylindrical explosives containment chamber of the type needed for nuclear arms-related tests.
A confidential UN report exposed later in the week indicated that Iran has continued to enrich uranium and develop its nuclear program, but the sanctions that have been imposed on the Islamic Republic have slowed down its quest to achieve nuclear weapons.
