Tehran, Feb 27 (IANS) The US should rectify its wrong approach vis-a-vis negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear programme, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said.
“It is the Americans that should try to rectify the wrong steps that they have taken (towards the Iranian nuclear issue),” Rouhani said in the holy city of Qom Thursday, Press TV reported.
The US was behind the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear work as it prevented Iran and the three European countries — Britain, France and Germany — from reaching a nuclear agreement at the end of 2004, Rouhani said.
Iran was seeking the removal of sanctions against the country through nuclear talks with the P5+1 group of world powers, the president noted.
“We seek to take away the tool of sanctions from the enemy through negotiations because sanctions are unjust, cruel and in contravention of human rights, and to that end, talks are the best way,” he said.
Even if the ongoing nuclear talks failed to lead to an agreement, said Rouhani, the world community would know that the opposite side was to blame.
American officials have admitted and told Congress that if they failed in the nuclear talks with Iran, they would be isolated, Rouhani added.
Representatives from Iran and the US started talks earlier this week in the Swiss city of Geneva. They held three rounds of negotiations in an attempt to narrow their differences.
On Monday, after the end of the talks in Swiss city, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 countries — Britain, France, China, Russia, the US plus Germany — would resume their discussions in the Swiss city next week.
Iran and the six world powers have missed two deadlines so far to reach a nuclear agreement since an interim deal was sealed in November 2013.
The two sides have set July 1 as the next deadline for reaching a final deal.