Representatives of the P5+1 during a meeting with the Iranian delegation in Baghdad, May 23, 2012
A senior Pakistani politician says Iran has the right to acquire and develop peaceful nuclear technology and the Western concerns in this regard are unfounded.
In an interview with IRNA on Friday, Pakistan’s Tahreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Spokesman Shafqat Mahmood said Iran's repeated declarations that its nuclear energy program is peaceful in nature have left no room for any Western concern.
Iran has the right to develop its nuclear energy program under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he stressed.
Why should Iran face Western pressure and sanctions over its peaceful nuclear program while there are currently many countries which are developing military nuclear program? the Pakistani official asked
The P5+1 group of world powers should adopt a positive outlook towards Iran's nuclear energy program in the negotiations with the Islamic Republic, Mahmood added.
Iran and the P5+1 - China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States plus Germany - held three rounds of plenary talks in Baghdad on May 23 and 24 after an earlier round of negotiations in the Turkish city of Istanbul in mid-April.
The two sides agreed to hold another round of talks in Moscow on June 18 and 19.
Iran has strongly refuted the US-led allegations that Tehran may be pursuing a military approach in its nuclear energy program, arguing that as an NPT signatory and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has every right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The allegations against Iran come as Israel is widely known to be the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, holding an arsenal of estimated 200 to 300 atomic warheads.
HMV/HGH/MA
