Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaee said Tuesday (July 10) that Iran will not take actions that would escalate confrontation with the West and criticized the international proposal in nuclear negotiations as tentative and vague.
In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with Al-Monitor at Iran’s UN mission in New York, Khazaee said Iran would not “initiate any provocative steps” such as undertaking higher level enrichment or closing the Strait of Hormuz, despite the imposition on July 1 of draconian new sanctions and little progress to date towards an agreement in talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.
“We will react if there is any provocative act from the other side,” Khazaee said. “We will not initiate any provocative steps.”
Khazaee and other Iranian diplomats have embarked on something of a charm offensive in recent days, seeking to explain their position amid the continuing impasse. Negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 have held a series of high level meetings in Istanbul, Baghdad, and Moscow in recent months, followed by technical discussions among nuclear experts in Istanbul July 3. Deputy nuclear negotiators from Iran and the European Union are due to meet in Istanbul July 24. The Iranian mission to the UN gave Iran experts a copy of a summary of their position and rebuttal to P5+1 proposals last week. The document revealed a wide gap between the two sides.
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