Iran: US Offer to Talks Political Gesture, G5+1 Proposal More Logical

Local Editor

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani refuted Washington's offer to hold direct talks with Iran as a political gesture.

In parallel, he stated that the US should show in practice that it is willing to sit at the negotiating table with Iran.
Larijani pointed to the recent talks between Iran and the six world powers in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and said, "Direct talks with Iran is more a gesture than political action, and we should see how the US behavior was in the recent talks."

"If the Americans want to change their behavior towards us, we should see whether they changed their behavior in those talks with the Iranian side," the Iranian speaker added.

For his part, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast confirmed that the latest proposals offered by the six world powers during the recent talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, were more logical than their previous offers.

He further added that the latest talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 were reigned by a different atmosphere.
"To reach a final understanding other measures might be needed, but the new orientation of the 5+1 led the atmosphere towards a direction which made the proposals assessable," added the spokesman.
Mehman-Parast described the Almaty talks as a first step, and said the two sides still need to raise their viewpoints in the experts meeting due to be held later in March in Istanbul, Turkey, to work out an agreement.

He further predicted "if the talks continue to move on a logical platform and the opposite side attempts to bring the world powers' approach close to Iran's proposals, an agreement will be achieved."

"Such a new approach contains reduction of sanctions and giving up the attitudes which have been shown to the Iranian nation in an incorrect manner," the spokesman underlined.

On the IAEA request to enter Parchin base, the Iranian official said: "The issue should be addressed in a wider agreement with the UN atomic agency. Our cooperation with the IAEA will continue in its already established framework of cooperation."

Iran and six world powers last week agreed on further meetings after two days of talks in Kazakhstan, the first since negotiations broke down in June, 2012.

Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org