Tehran, May 30 (IANS) Iran will not discuss the issue of inspection of its military sites in the ongoing nuclear talks with the world powers, Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said.
Iranian negotiators are committed to follow the “decisive guideline” of the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who recently rejected calls for the inspection of Iran’s military sites as part of the final nuclear deal, Araqchi said on Friday
The guideline would also not allow interviews with the country’s nuclear scientists, Xinhua reported.
“We have fully informed the opposite side that this (the issue of inspections and interviews) will never be on the agenda” of the negotiations, Araqchi added.
Talks to seal a deal over Tehran’s nuclear programme are likely to extend beyond the self-imposed June 30 deadline, he said in Vienna on Wednesday.
The representatives of Iran and the world powers are working on the draft of a nuclear agreement and the discussions would continue as many times as needed, Araqchi said.
However, the US said that it is not contemplating an extension of the talks beyond the June 30 deadline.
The P5+1 countries — US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany — are making efforts to reach a deal within the deadline, state department spokesman Jeff Rathke said at a regular briefing on Wednesday.
Iran and the world powers resumed a new round of negotiations on Wednesday in a bid to finalize an accord on Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.
The late June deadline was agreed by the negotiators in November 2014 after a failed attempt to reach a comprehensive nuclear deal as the parties were divided over limiting Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity and steps to lift sanctions that are crippling the Iranian economy.