West Should Lift Anti-Iran Sanctions: Jannati

Tehran, April 21, IRNA – The West should stop sanctions against Iran if it wants to acquire the nation’s trust, Tehran's interim Friday Prayers Leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said here Friday. Addressing hundreds of worshipers at the Tehran University's central campus, Jannati added: 'If the West continues its hostility toward Iran by the stretch of sanctions and pressures, Iran would leave the negotiation table.” Since the West officially accepted Iran’ right for peaceful nuclear enrichment, Istanbul talks were a success for the country, Jannati noted. He stressed the importance of improvement of Iran’s economy and the elimination of unemployment and poverty, adding that an independent country needs an independent economy. After over a year of stalled talks, Iran and the Group 5+1 eventually accepted last month to resume their negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 14 and in case of good progress hold a second round of talks in Iraq's capital city, Baghdad. The two sides attended two meetings at Istanbul's Lutfil Kirdar Hall Saturday. Ashton led the delegations of the world powers, while the Iranian side was headed by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary. In the first round of talks, the Iranian team of negotiators called on the western parties to take proper measures to build Iran's confidence. Both Jalili and Ashton voiced satisfaction with the Saturday talks. The last meeting between the two sides took place in Istanbul in January 2011. Iran and the G5+1 had also held two rounds of multifaceted talks in Geneva in December 2010. 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 compelling 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 due to the fact that the country's fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rights enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed the West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing those sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians national resolve to continue with the civilian program./end