Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 22
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham rejected a Reuters report about Iranian officials demand for partial removal of sanctions only in specific areas, Iran's Fars news agency reported.
Afkham called the report "completely untrue," saying such kind of news are published to disturb the present atmosphere of negotiations during the time left to reach an agreement.
The Reuters reported on Oct. 21 that Iran has offered the P5+1 group a new compromise proposal in nuclear talks, but Western negotiators say it includes no viable concessions.
In the negotiations with six major powers, the Iranians say they are no longer demanding a total end to economic sanctions in return for curbing their nuclear program and would accept initially lifting just the latest, most damaging, sanctions, according to the Reuters.
"Under their most recent offer, Iranian officials have told Reuters that Iran's leadership would be satisfied with removing crippling U.S. and European Union energy and banking sanctions imposed in 2012," the report said.
Iran's foreign ministry spokeswoman emphasized that "none of the speculations made by some foreign media which are usually driven by special political intentions is true."
Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) held their latest round of talks in Vienna in mid-October to work out a final agreement aimed at ending the long-standing dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.
Last November, Iran and the P5+1 clinched an interim nuclear accord, which took effect on Jan. 20 and expired six months later. However, the two sides agreed to extend their talks until Nov. 24 as they remained divided on a number of key issues.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi said on Oct. 20 that the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 countries have differences in all the topics regarding the nuclear negotiations.