Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, on Monday welcomed the extension of talks between his country and six world powers, and hailed it as “victorious” for Iranians.
“We have neither compromised over Iran’s nuclear rights, nor will ever do so, and there is no doubt that the Iranian nuclear technology will remain functioning,” he said, according to the IRNA news agency.
Rouhani once again repeated the slogan he used during his presidential campaign that the centrifuges will never cease rotating, while the wheels of the people’s lives, too, will rotate more smoothly.
“Our nation has emerged victorious and will be victorious,” emphasized Rouhani.
While world leaders have said that Iran and the West have “never been closer” to an agreement, Israel has warned repeatedly that Rouhani has embarked on a “charm offensive” to buy time to continue building nuclear warheads.
The Islamic Republic hotly denies its nuclear program is meant to build a nuclear weapon, even though the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has revealed Iran is not abiding by the interim conditions in refusing to answer questions on the military aspects of its program.
Iran has been toughening its stance in recent weeks. Iran’s chief negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, recently said he sees no prospect for a deal unless the other side abandons its “illogical excessive demands”.
A senior Iranian official followed those comments by declaring that Iran will demand that all Western sanctions be lifted as part of a final deal, rejecting an American proposal of a gradual lifting of sanctions.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the extension of the talks, which meant that a possible deal that would be bad for Israel was postponed for the time being.
“We have always said that no agreement is preferable to a bad agreement and the agreement that Iran signed is a very bad and dangerous agreement for Israel, for the region and in my opinion for the future of the entire world,” he said.
“It is very important that this agreement has been prevented as of now but a struggle is yet before us and we intend to continue this struggle in order to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threshold state that would endanger us and others. Israel will always act on this matter and reserves its right to defend itself by itself.”
