{"id":27055,"date":"2014-09-28T11:02:55","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T03:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=27055"},"modified":"2014-09-27T20:57:50","modified_gmt":"2014-09-27T12:57:50","slug":"iran-leader-nuclear-progress-not-significant-sanctions-must-melt-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/28\/iran-leader-nuclear-progress-not-significant-sanctions-must-melt-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran leader: Nuclear progress not significant, sanctions must \u2018melt away\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pres.<\/a>
Pres. Hassan Rouhani of Iran at the World Economic Forum 2014. Screenshot of PressTV footage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK\u2014Iran\u2019s President said Friday that progress so far in nuclear talks with six major powers \u201chas not been significant,\u201d and the pace must be speeded up if the Nov. 24 deadline for a final agreement is to be reached.<\/p>\n

Hassan Rouhani said \u201cthere have been steps forward, but they haven\u2019t been significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

He spoke at a\u00a0news\u00a0conference on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly\u2019s annual meeting of\u00a0world\u00a0leaders. His remarks also focused on fighting terrorism and relations with the United States.<\/p>\n

Talks between experts from Iran and the six major powers\u2014the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany\u2014have been taking place on the sidelines of the annual meeting of\u00a0world\u00a0leaders. But France\u2019s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said an expected meeting of foreign ministers was called off Friday because of a lack of \u201csignificant advances.\u201d<\/p>\n

The negotiations have been stalled for months over Iran\u2019s opposition to sharply reducing the size and output of centrifuges that can enrich uranium both to levels needed for reactor fuel or the core of nuclear warheads. Iran says its enrichment program is only for peaceful purposes, but the United States fears it could be used to make a bomb. Iran says any deal must put an end to the Western sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.<\/p>\n

Despite the lack of progress, Rouhani said Iran believes \u201cthe serious (political) will does exist\u201d to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery side must show courage, the will, the strength … along with the appropriate needed action and the needed flexibility,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we can do this, we will reach our objective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rouhani said Iran has made clear that it has the needed flexibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s up to the counterparts and interlocutors to show the same level of flexibility,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the ball is in the interlocutors\u2019 court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rouhani said Iran will never accept any agreement that requires it to stop enriching uranium for peaceful purposes to produce nuclear energy, and all sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and the United Nation must \u201cbe completely melted away and deactivated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeking a win-win deal, an agreement … which benefits both sides,\u201d Rouhani said.<\/p>\n

For Iran, he said, it must \u201cspecify and recognize the obvious rights of the people of Iran and set forth the conditions under which Iran will continue to gain the trust and eliminate doubts of other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTime is short,\u201d he said. \u201cProgress that has been witnessed in the last few days has been extremely slow. We must have a more fast pace to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rouhani reiterated that a nuclear agreement will not only benefit Iran and the six powers \u201cbut it will be great for the stability of the region and the entire\u00a0world\u00a0… (and) will be the beginning of a path toward collaboration and co-operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Iran has calculated \u201cvarious equations to safeguard its own national interest, so it is our counterparts\u2019 turn to revisit … the issues that they\u2019re holding so close to the discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about one of those issues\u2014how much Iran is willing to reduce its enrichment capacity\u2014Rouhani said it was written in the Geneva agreement that led to the current round of negotiations that \u201cenrichment must be according to the need.\u201d He added that \u201cIran only wishes to have enrichment according to its needs\u201d under the auspices of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the topic is not so focused as everyone has made it out to be on decreasing the capability of enrichment,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is mostly a matter of the time period during which Iran is willing to limit its capability, and after what period they can expand upon those activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

If an agreement is reached, Rouhani said, \u201cmost important will be trust-building\u201d because of the lack of trust between the two sides\u2014and he said building trust \u201cis a very long ladder.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u2014Iran\u2019s President said Friday that progress so far in nuclear talks with six major powers \u201chas not been significant,\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":21504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-w","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}