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Nuclear talks to provide touchstone for more cooperation with US – Iranian expert

Politics Materials 27 April 2015 14:49 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, Apr. 27

By Temkin Jafarov, Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Although Iran has strenuously resisted taking any issue other than its nuclear case into the ongoing nuclear negotiations, the Iranian leaders have said that how the talks progress will provide a tool to weigh whether or not to hold talks with world powers, the US in particular on other matters.

Iran is in no way interested in introducing regional issues into the talks, and there is no relation between them either, political affairs expert Hassan Beheshtipour told Trend April 27.

However, he noted that the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has asserted that if the US proves cooperative on the nuclear case, then Iran will be ready to hold talks on other issues, including regional affairs.

Also, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had asserted in an article published in New York Times that if the nuclear negotiations succeed, Iran would be open to talks on more issues in a framework that would improve regional peace and stability, Beheshtipour pointed out.

Right now the talks are following a positive trend, pursuing the disagreements; and the most important issue is removing the sanctions as well as the executive procedure, he said.

"In the executive sphere, for example it has been agreed to reduce the number of centrifuges from 19,000 to 6,000," the expert said.

However, the implementation of the commitments will take time, or it yet has to be clarified how sanctions will be removed, he asserted.

"I think the sides have shown political will that they want to reach an agreement, but what Israel does trying to prevent an agreement remains in place, nevertheless," Beheshtipour pointed out.

Iran and the group 5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) are in talks to draft a final agreement on Tehran's nuclear program.

While limiting Iran's nuclear activities, the to-be agreement would remove international sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Edited by CN

Mehdi Sepahvand is Trend Agency's journalist in Iran, follow him on Twitter: @mehdisepahvand

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