Baku, Azerbaijan, April 16
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Senior Iranian official says that the country's missile power will not be discussed in talks with P5+1.
Iranian defence minister, Hossein Dehghan said that the country will never accept any intervention from the western side on the issue, Iran's Fars news agency reported on April 16.
Earlier in February, the U.S. negotiator Wendy Sherman said Iran's ballistic capabilities should be addressed as part of a comprehensive agreement with Iran.
Dehghan said that "the westerns say that Iran may use its ballistic missiles to deliver nuclear warheads, but we repeatedly announced that weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran's defense doctrine."
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.
Under a six-month interim deal between Iran and the P5+1(the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) which took effect on Jan. 20, the six major powers agreed to give Iran access to its $4.2 billion in revenues blocked overseas if the country fulfills the deal's terms which offer sanctions relief in exchange for steps on curbing the Iranian nuclear program.
The two sides intend to continue their talks to reach a final agreement to fully resolve the decade-old dispute over the Islamic Republic's nuclear energy program.