Brussels, 11/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 10 September, Iran's President Hassan Rohani said that his government “hopes to resolve the issues gradually” that are linked to the Iranian nuclear issue, and that this must definitely be “a win-win [situation for both parties]. We are ready for this”. His government “will try (…) to progress [the negotiations] with rationality and arguments”, he added, speaking on Iranian television.
However, Rohani also warned that “the time to resolve the nuclear issue will not be limitless. We have a precise time gap”. “The world will have to take advantage of this time gap and the opportunity offered by my nation with my election” on 14 June, he added. He said that he had the tacit support of Iran's Supreme Leader for “flexibility” in the negotiations.
Rohani also warned again that his country would not give up its nuclear rights by “one iota”. “In the nuclear affair, our government will not renounce by one iota the absolute rights of Iran”, he reiterated.
High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton is due to meet Iran's Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif - who is in charge of the nuclear talks - in New York at the end of September. She hopes to be able to agree on a new date for the negotiations (see EUROPE 10916). Rohani is expected to meet the foreign affairs ministers of some of the E3+3 members (Germany, France, UK and China, USA and Russia). The last negotiations took place in Almaty (Kazakhstan) on 5-6 April (see EUROPE 10822). (CG/transl.fl)