FM: Iran’s talks with US focused on nuclear issue

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated that the country’s consultations with Washington are merely focused on the nuclear issue. “Iran holds talks with the US merely on the nuclear issue and believes that its other negotiations are not bilateral,” Zarif said in a joint press conference with Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Madani in Tehran on Wednesday. His remarks came after he held a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of Munich security conference early February on the nuclear issue. Asked if the sanctions related to other fields than Iran’s nuclear program will remain in place despite the interim agreement inked between Iran and the world powers in November, he said, “We speak with the US merely over the nuclear issue and we have not talked about other subjects.” “All the sanctions (imposed for the sake of Iran's activities) in the nuclear field and other fields are not useful and create pessimism and are generally illegitimate and we don’t accept to enter negotiations on issues other than the nuclear issue.” On November 24, Iran and the world powers (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and continue talks with the country to settle all problems between the two sides. Then after several rounds of experts talks on how to enforce the agreement, Iran and the six major world powers finalized an agreement on ways to implement the deal. On January 20, a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran has halted its 20-percent enrichment activity under the Geneva deal. Hours later the US and the EU removed part of their sanctions against Tehran.