Iran rejects Western pressures over its nuclear activities and will never give up its rights, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator said Thursday ahead key talks with world powers in Baghdad next week.
Iran
rejects Western pressures over its nuclear activities and will never give up
its rights,
Tehran
's
chief nuclear negotiator said Thursday ahead key talks with world powers in
Baghdad
next
week.
"If we participate in the negotiations... it is because of our resistance
[to Western powers]. Thanks to our resistance, we have defended the rights of
the Iranian people," Saeed Jalili said in a speech broadcast on local
television.
"The Iranian people will never give up even an iota of their rights,"
Jalili added, in reference to the Islamic republic's nuclear drive which the
West suspects is masking a weapons program.
Tehran
vehemently denies the charge.
"I advise Western officials against making calculated mistakes. In
Baghdad
, we
can negotiate for cooperation on the basis of respect for
Iran
's
undeniable rights.
"The path chosen by our country is a path of no return. The [West] would
like to block
Iran
's
progress in the nuclear domain, but they have failed.
Iran
today
has become a nuclear power," he said.
Jalili also reiterated that sanctions and international pressure weren't
affecting
Iran
's
determination.
"To those who say that time is running for dialogue, I reply: What is
running out is the policy of pressuring
Iran
,
because this strategy has not yielded the results" expected by world
powers.
The
U.S.
and
the European Union have tightened economic sanctions on
Iran
, imposing
tough restrictions on its vital oil industry, to pressure it over its disputed
uranium enrichment program.
U.S. President Barack Obama warned
Iran
in
March that time was running out to resolve the standoff through diplomacy.
Iran and the so-called P5+1--China, France, Russia and, the U.K. and the U.S.
plus Germany--held their first talks in 15 months in Istanbul in mid-April, and
agreed to more in-depth discussions in Baghdad on May 23.
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