Obama's remarks unacceptable: Iran foreign minister

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has dismissed US President Barack Obama's recent comments on Iran as unacceptable, stressing that Tehran will not give in to excessive demands by the other side in the nuclear negotiations.

“It is clear that Mr. Obama’s comments are meant to win the US public opinion and counter the propaganda campaign by the Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and that of other radical parties opposed to the negotiations [over Tehran’s nuclear energy program],” Zarif told reporters on Tuesday, describing the American president’s latest remarks on Iran as “unacceptable.”

“The remarks by Mr. Obama clearly point to the fact that the US, which has over the past decades, either directly or indirectly threatened the Islamic Republic of Iran and imposed many cruel and illegal sanctions [against the country], has come to the conclusion that the policy of threats and sanctions is a failed policy,” Zarif added.

Iran’s top diplomat further emphasized that neither threats nor sanctions could dent the country’s determination to develop peaceful nuclear technology.

Zarif said Iran entered into the talks with the P5+1 countries - the permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany - with an honest approach and will continue the negotiations to restore the Iranian nation’s rights.

Iran will not give in to excessive demands and irrational approaches by the opposite side, he stressed.

Fresh talks

Officials from Iran and the United States started the second day of their latest round of talks over Tehran’s nuclear energy program in the Swiss city of Montreux on Tuesday, with Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry heading the talks.

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, and US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz also started bilateral talks on Tuesday to discuss technical issues.

On Monday, Obama said Iran should agree to freeze sensitive nuclear activity for at least 10 years, if it seeks a comprehensive final deal over its nuclear program.

He defended the talks for an interim nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic, but said the odds are against the negotiations with Iran ending in an agreement.

“If, in fact, Iran is willing to agree to double-digit years of keeping their program where it is right now and, in fact, rolling back elements of it that currently exist ... if we’ve got that, and we’ve got a way of verifying that, there’s no other steps we can take that would give us such assurance that they don’t have a nuclear weapon," Obama told Reuters.

The US president also said that Netanyahu had been wrong when he opposed an interim nuclear agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 group, adding that Iran has not advanced its program since the deal was inked between the two sides in November 2013.

The US president also criticized a plan by lawmakers in the Senate to impose additional sanctions on Iran if no deal is reached by July 1.

The new round of talks in Montreux comes as representatives from Iran and the United States held three rounds of intense negotiations in the Swiss city of Geneva on February 22-23 to bridge their differences ahead of a key July 1 deadline for reaching a comprehensive deal.

Iran and the P5+1 countries – Britain, France, China, Russia, and the United States plus Germany – have missed two deadlines since an interim deal was signed in November 2013. They have set July 1 as the next deadline for the talks.

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