Tehranˈs Friday Prayers Leader Urges G5+1 To Accept Nuclear Iran

Tehran, March 16, IRNA – Tehranˈs interim Friday Prayers Leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati in his second sermon urged G5+1(Permanent members of UN Security Council plus Germany) to accept Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. Welcoming the decrease of sanctions against Tehran, he noted that G5+1 has no way but to accept Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. “Despite sanctions, nation has achieved great progresses in various fields of science; massive turnout of people in the Revolution’s anniversary rallies on the 22nd of the Iranian calendar month of Bahman (February 10) proved that nation is committed to continue support for its revolutionary ideals, including its right for having peaceful nuclear energy.” By holding rallies in 22nd of the Iranian calendar month of Bahman, Iranians commemorate the 34th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Meanwhile, Jannati pointed to the everyday murder of Shia people in Pakistan by the hands of extremists, asserting that US agents provoke such attacks in order to spread division among Muslim Ummah. Pakistani Shiites have come under increasing attacks in recent months. In a recent case, over 45 Shiites were killed in a terrorist attack on the Shiite Community in Karachi earlier this month. Pointing to the upcoming 2013 presidential election in Iran, Tehran’s Friday prayers leader said that Iranian elections during the past three decades have been one of the most free and fair elections in the world. “Candidates are chosen in a legal process based on the constitution and people vote for anyone they prefer,” he noted. It should be pointed out that the last round of the fresh talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 ended in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on February 27. During the talks Iran and the world powers agreed to hold an experts meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 17-18 and then continue their talks at the level of their top negotiators in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on April 5-6. Before Almaty talks, Iran and the G5+1 have already held three rounds of negotiations in Geneva, two rounds in Istanbul, one round in Baghdad and one round in Moscow. The last round of talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 was held in Moscow in June. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the western embargos for turning down Westˈs calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed Westˈs demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iraniansˈ national resolve to continue the path. Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)ˈs questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities./end