Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 23
By Rahim Zamanov, Saeed Isayev - Trend:
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that Tehran will respond to American officials' unthoughtful remarks, the IRIB News Agency reported on December 23.
"Comments and actions by US official have been provocative and against the spirit of cooperation, required for the implementation of the November 24 deal," he said.
Araqchi was commenting on the US expanding the list of companies that were subjected to sanctions.
He went on to note that Iran will continue nuclear talks with the P5+1 with goodwill despite the fact that US officials have adopted a contradictory stance since the Geneva deal.
According to Araqchi, Tehran has advised US officials against trying to resolve their internal problems or tensions with their allies at the expense of the Iranian nation's rights.
Iran agreed with the six permanent UN Security Council countries and Germany last month on a temporary deal that curbs Tehran's nuclear program, as a signal that the Islamic Republic does not aim for nuclear weapons. In return, some sanctions targeting Iran are to be suspended.
Experts from both sides have been working for the past two weeks, first in Vienna, and then in Geneva, to agree on the sequence in which each side would take its confidence-building steps, and on other technical questions.
Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who coordinates the group of six, spoke on the phone Sunday and decided to suspend the talks over Christmas.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies.
The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical researches instead.