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Iran will continue nuclear talks with West despite new US sanctions, Zarif says | JPost | Israel News.

( Big of them… – JW )

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS

12/15/2013 12:11

Iranian foreign minister says Tehran will provide a “proper, calculated, purposeful and smart response” to “improper measures” taken by the US to blacklist 19 companies, individuals for supporting Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran will continue nuclear negotiations with world powers in Geneva despite measures taken by the US targeting several companies and individuals for supporting Tehran’s nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday on his Facebook page.

The United States on Thursday black-listed 19 additional companies and people under sanctions aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining the capability to make nuclear weapons, US officials said. Iran says its program is purely peaceful.

“The Americans have taken improper measures in the last few days and we have given the appropriate response to them after considering all aspects of the issue,” Zarif said, adding the response will be “a proper, calculated, purposeful and smart.”

Iranian negotiators halted nuclear talks in Vienna on Thursday to return to Tehran for consultations after Washington’s new measures, Fars quoted one of the negotiators as saying.

Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the semi-official Fars news agency on Friday that the new measures were “against the spirit of the Geneva deal.”

According to the interim Geneva deal, that was signed between Iran and six world powers on November 24, the Islamic Republic would curb its nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from economic sanctions over the next six months.

Iran has repeatedly said it will not be pressured, warning that new sanctions “could kill the deal”.

Russia on Friday echoed Iran’s criticism of the new measures.

“The US administration’s decision goes against the spirit of this document,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

“Widening American ‘blacklists’ could seriously complicate the fulfillment of othe Geneva agreement, which proposes easing the sanctions regime,” Zakharova said in a statement.

US officials have said the blacklisting move showed that the Geneva deal would not interfere with their policy of economic embargoes designed to curb entities suspected of supporting Iran’s nuclear program.

Some US lawmakers are pushing for further sanctions to be imposed against Iran but President Barack Obama has campaigned for Congress to hold off on new measures to provide space for the diplomatic process.

In Vienna earlier on Friday, the European Union said that Iran and six world powers needed more time to work out complex technical steps to implement last month’s deal after four days of expert-level talks.

The new measure, the first such enforcement action since the first step agreement was reached in Geneva, targeted entities that are suspected of involvement in the proliferation of materials for weapons of mass destruction and have tried to evade the current sanctions.

Administration officials said Thursday’s targets include companies and individuals engaged in transactions on behalf of other companies that the United States has also previously designated under the sanctions. They include Mid Oil Asia, Singa Tankers, Siqiriya Maritime, Ferland Company Limited and Vitaly Sokolenko.

The US also named five Iranian entities it said are directly engaged in actions contributing to Iran’s ability to enrich uranium.

Several other entities related to Iran’s ballistic missile program were also targeted.

Despite these measures, Zarif said talks would continue and said the negotiations would have ups and downs, something that was expected from the very beginning.

He urged others in Iran not to rush to announce the Geneva deal’s “early death,” saying Tehran will answer all the criticism and ambiguities in appropriate time.”

The powers who negotiated the interim deal on Iran’s nuclear program – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States – are continuing negotiations with a goal of reaching a comprehensive final deal in six months.

Iran returns second space monkey to earth, stages crisis in nuclear talks.

Iran’s second space monkey mission

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced Saturday, Dec. 14, that a monkey had been successfully launched into space and brought back to earth safely aboard a home-made bio-capsule. The mission, dubbed Fargam (Auspicious), was the first to run on liquid fuel, he said, without providing any further technical information.

In January, when Iran sent its first monkey into space, American and Israeli strategists were caught by surprise by the technological capability displayed and alarmed by its military connotations.
Tehran’s space program, say debkafile’s military sources, demonstrates its missiles’ capability to reach any point on earth.

This is all the more disturbing in the context of the commitment Iran undertook under the interim nuclear accord it signed with the six powers on Nov. 24, to refrain from developing nuclear-capable missiles with ranges beyond 2,000 km. The space launch Saturday virtually nullified that commitment. It was evidently part of a carefully staged action to put the entire Geneva accord on the skids at the first opportunity. The Iranians followed through on it after the White House acted Thursday, Dec. 12, to tighten sanctions by adding new Iranian companies and individuals engaged in the oil industry to the list of targets.
Tehran had repeatedly threatened to break off nuclear negotiations if more sanctions were imposed.

And indeed, Friday, the Iranian delegation abruptly terminated the talks taking place with the six powers in Vienna, announcing they must return home for consultations.
The delegation left unfinished work on the practical applications of the Geneva accord and left before a date was set for the start of the six-month interim period and a freeze on their nuclear program.
Saturday, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Chairman of Iran’s national security and foreign policy parliamentary commission, left no doubt that the Geneva track was in crisis.

He explained: “…the nation of Iran and MPs will not retreat on national benefits, the rights of Iran in the nuclear field, and the blood of the martyrs. It expects the nuclear negotiations to strictly defend the interests of the country.”
The Iranian lawmaker went on to say: “Surely the recent actions by the US in adding names of Iranian companies and institutions to the sanctions list is a clear violation of the Geneva nuclear agreement. [American] officials showed that they are not trustworthy.”

This walkout was accompanied by the cancellation of Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s speaking tour in the West scheduled for next week.
The course Tehran has embarked on in the last 24 hours has three objectives:

1. To squeeze President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry into implementing the Geneva accord on Iran’s terms. The administration began releasing frozen Iranian assets after the signing in Geneva but neglected to write into the document a date for Iran to start implementing its part of the deal.
This omission has given Tehran additional leverage.

2. The space monkey’s launch symbolized Tehran’s determination to carry on with the military aspects of its nuclear program (which too were left out of the Geneva agreement) and the development of ballistic missiles able to carry nuclear warheads.

3.  To show Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that his campaign for harsher sanctions against Iran – and the support it has gained in the US Congress – will lead nowhere. President Obama is given a choice between going back on the new sanctions or forgetting about a negotiated settlement of the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program.
Either way, Tehran doesn’t have much to lose. The promise to freeze its nuclear program, for the six months of negotiations on a comprehensive agreement, was left up in the air in Vienna and the Islamic Repubic’s legitimate right to continue enrichment has been undersigned by six world powers.