Iran’s ex-president says final nuclear deal is achievable

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami has said that a comprehensive deal with the P5+1 on the country's disputed nuclear program is achievable.

Khatami expressed hope that "wisdom and courage of the Iranian administration for resolving the nuclear issue would be met by a realistic response from the Western side," Iran's Asriran news portal reported on May 26.

Khatami went on to say that the Iranian government is serious about the issue, adding that the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also supports a comprehensive nuclear deal.

"We hope to see a good and different approach from the West on the issue," Khatami, a reformist politician said. "Iran wants no more than recognizing its sovereignty and rights," he added.

Iran and the P5+1 group (five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the U.S., China, Russia, France and the UK - plus Germany) wrapped up their latest round of high-level nuclear talks in the Austrian capital Vienna on May 16 without any result.

Iranian officials blamed the US for the failure, claiming that Washington has made excessive demands beyond the agreements made in the previous rounds of the talks.

Tehran and the six countries have been discussing ways to iron out differences and start drafting a final deal on Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

In November 2013, the two sides signed an interim nuclear deal in the Swiss city of Geneva that came into force on January 20.

The deal (the Joint Plan of Action) stipulates that over the course of six months, Iran and the six countries will draw up a comprehensive nuclear deal which will lead to a lifting of all the sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

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 research instead.