Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 10
By Umid Niayesh, Saeed Isayev - Trend:
There are no secret talks going on between Iran and the US, except for nuclear negotiations, spokeswoman of Iran's foreign ministry Marzieh Afkham said at the press conference in Tehran, IRINN reported live on Dec. 10.
"Currently, the final goal for Iran in nuclear negotiations is clear," Afkham said. "This step is - to completely eliminate the existing sanctions, acknowledgement of country's nuclear rights, and maintaining the nuclear enrichment."
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.
On November 24, Iran and the P5+1 reached a deal in Geneva after days of hard work and intensive negotiations. After the agreement, Iran has agreed to curb some nuclear activities for six months in return for sanctions relief.
"The sanctions started to collapse after the Geneva deal," Afkham noted. She also said there are no "secret talks" going on between Iran and the West - only negotiations related to nuclear program.
Commenting on the news that regional Arab states willing to participate in the Iran-P5+1 negotiations, Afkham said that it wasn't relevant.
"Iran communicates with its neighbors directly, it isn't relevant for Arab states to participate in the nuclear negotiations," Afkham said.
Speaking on the topic of Iran-Saudi Arabia relations, Akfham expressed hope that Iran will talk with Saudi Arabia when its ready.
"When the amount of direct talks decreased, misunderstanding increased, and propaganda from both sides have affected our relations," Afkham said.
"Saudi Arabia is important to Iran. We haven't excluded Saudi Arabia from list of countries that we need to visit," she said.
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