Larijani: Iran Serious About Resolving N-dispute

Tehran, Oct 9, IRNA - Iran is serious about resolving the dispute over its nuclear program, and is keen to resolve the issue “in a short period of time,” speaker of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) Ali Larijani told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland. "From Iran's side, I can say that we are ready,” Larijani said, stressing that both sides should be serious in their nuclear talks. Larijani is currently in Geneva to attend the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting. “If the US and other countries say that Iran should not develop a nuclear bomb or should not move towards that, then we can clearly show and prove that. We have no such intention. So it can be resolved in a very short period of time,” Larijani told CNN. Nonetheless, he added, the West must accept Iran’s right to enrich nuclear fuel for civilian purposes, as allowed under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of nuclear weapons, to which Iran is a signatory. “If they want to bargain with us or if they have ulterior motives,” he said, “or maybe they want to somehow convince Iran to abandon its nuclear program, then it is going to take a long time.” “Right now, I have no reason to be pessimistic. Iran will be very serious about the talks, and Iran really wants to resolve the matter.”/end