BERLIN, February 03, (ITAR-TASS). The final agreement between Iran and the West on Tehran’s controversial nuclear program should be reached by summer, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on a visit to the German capital, said.
“We can and should do that by July,” Zarif said while speaking at an event organized by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). “I even think we may achieve that earlier.”
Iran says it needs nuclear power to generate electricity, but Western powers led by the United States claim Iran’s eventual aim is to create nuclear weapons.
The minister said Iran would use its nuclear program for solely civilian purposes, adding that possession of nuclear weapons was not Tehran’s strategic aim.
“Atomic weapons will not raise the level of our security,” Zarif said.
Earlier he told a German television channel that “no power is entitled to ban Iran from using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” adding that the course of the talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program should “to a greater degree be defined by international norms and agreements" corresponding to international law.
The six international negotiators on Iran’s program - five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, China, France, Britain and the United States) plus Germany - agreed at a meeting in Geneva on November 24, 2013 not to introduce new sanctions against Iran on the part of the United Nations, the European Union and the US.
They also agreed to lift certain restrictions for Iran in some fields.
The agreement entered into force January 20, 2014. Iran agreed to stop enrichment of uranium to higher than 5 percent. The next round of talks is expected to be held in Geneva on February 18.