WarSclerotic

Iranian Speaker: We’re Ready for Nuclear Deal – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

Bushehr nuclear power plant

AFP photo

Iran is serious about resolving the dispute over its nuclear program and is keen to resolve the issue “in a short period of time,” the speaker of Iran’s parliament said on Tuesday.

“From Iran’s side, I can say that we are ready,” Ali Larijani told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview from Geneva.

“If the Americans and other countries say that Iran should not develop a nuclear bomb or should not move towards that, then we can clearly show and prove that. We have no such intention. So it can be resolved in a very short period of time,” he added.

Nonetheless, Larijani said, the West must accept Iran’s right to enrich nuclear fuel for civilian purposes, as allowed under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), to which Iran is a signatory.

“If they want to bargain with us or if they have ulterior motives,” he said, “or maybe they want to somehow convince Iran to abandon its nuclear program, then it is going to take a long time.”

Larijani referred to the recent conciliatory remarks made by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani who has called for the lifting of international sanctions, imposed over the nuclear program, that have taken a heavy toll on the Iranian economy.

Rouhani, who the West touts as a “moderate cleric”, has worked to smooth relations with the West and has been somewhat successful. In an indication of the shifting mood, he spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama by phone recently, the first direct conversation between leaders of the two countries since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

On Tuesday, Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague said that his country and Iran are taking steps toward restoring ties, two years after Britain cooled ties with Tehran, removing diplomats following an attack on its embassy.

“The important thing is that overall what [Rouhani did was approved by the Supreme Leader,” Larijani told CNN, saying that he had showed the world that Iran is “opposed to extremism.”

Ayatollah Khamanei has endorsed direct negotiations, and Larijani said that upcoming nuclear talks in Geneva will be a “very important step.”

“Right now, I have no reason to be pessimistic,” he told Amanpour. “Iran will be very serious about the talks, and Iran really wants to resolve the matter.”

Israeli leaders have expressed concern at Rouhani’s overtures, suggesting that the Iranian president’s speeches may cover an agenda that is not unlike his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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