A senior Iranian lawmaker says Tehran's negotiations with major world powers will be based on answers to questions raised in a letter by Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, Press TV reported.
"If negotiations have been postponed until now, it is because the other party has not been honest," Deputy Head of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Esmail Kowsari said on Saturday.
"The Western (countries) thought they could change Iran's stances through (adopting) sanctions and achieve their desired results, but they gradually understood their mistakes," IRNA quoted Kowsari as saying.
The Iranian official added that the West had come to the conclusion that a delay would not produce desired results.
"The basis of Iran's negotiations with the P5+1 member states (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US) would be the letter of Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili and the three questions raised in this letter."
In a letter to EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton, Jalili said that while Iran is still ready to resume talks with the group of six world powers, a number of conditions would first have to be met.
All parties must prove their commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty's pillars of global disarmament, non-proliferation and the right to peaceful nuclear technology, wrote Jalili.
He also called for clarification on the ambiguous nuclear program of Israel -- widely believed to be the Middle East's sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal.
In his letter, Jalili reiterated that any approach which does not square with the package of proposals offered by Tehran in May 2009 is a 'reactionary and unconstructive' move which will not be accepted by the Iranian side.
On October 14, Ashton proposed holding three days of talks over Iran's nuclear program in mid-November in the Austrian capital of Vienna, expressing hope that Tehran would "respond positively" to the offer.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki welcomed the new offer for the resumption of talks, and later said that Tehran was involved in negotiations with the P5+1 to determine the exact date and venue for talks.