By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
TEHRAN, Iran-Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has declared that his country will not back down from its nuclear rights as nuclear rights talks have again begun in Geneva. The heated speech was delivered in Tehran, denouncing two of the six countries whose representatives are scheduled to meet with Iran’s foreign minister.
“France was guilty of kneeling before Israel, while America considered itself superior to mankind. Israel meanwhile was led by people unworthy of the title human,” stated Khamenei. “I insist on stabilizing the rights of the Iranian nation, including the nuclear rights. I insist on not retreating one step from the rights of the Iranian nation,” he further said.
His remarks arrived hours before diplomats from the U.S., Great Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany started another new round of talks in Geneva with Iranian negotiators, the third set in little over a month
A French government spokesman called these remarks “unacceptable” and warned that they would only “complicate negotiations.” However, Khamenei softened the blow by saying that Iran wanted “friendly relations with all nations, even the United States.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, met with Katherine Ashton, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, in Geneva yesterday. Ms. Ashton chairs the “P5 plus 1,” a committee formed to handle Iran’s nuclear program, consisting of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: U.S., Great Britain, France, Russia, and China.
Iran has signed the non-proliferation treaty affording nations the right to civilian nuclear technology in exchang for not acquiring nuclear weapons. However, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has ruled Iran in breach by not disclosing its activities and not allowing full inspections.
In response to their breach, the U.N. Security Council has imposed sanctions on Iran that have crippled its economy. Recent talks in Geneva have been aimed at relaxing these sanctions in response to Iran’s compliance in termination of it uranium harvesting which is nearing a “weapons-useable” threshold.
“We will maintain the sanctions as long as we are not certain that Iran has definitely and irreversibly renounced it military program to obtain nuclear weapons,” French President Francois Holland said in Israel on Monday.
The previous meeting in Geneva discussing the sanctions imposed on Iran was attended by the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry along with Will Hague, the Foreign Secretary, and their French and German counterparts when agreement seemed near in the future.
For more information, please see the following:
Al Jazeera-Khamenei vows no retreat on nuclear programme-21 November 2013
Hurriyet Daily News-Khamenei vows no retreat in Iran talks-21 November 2013
Sky News-Iran vows no retreat in nuclear talks-21 November 2013
Telegraph-Iran’s Supreme Leader vows ‘no retreat’ as nuclear talks begin-21 November 2013
