US President Barack Obama warns there is no reason to extend
nuclear negotiations with Iran if an agreement on fundamental principles
is not reached soon.
"I don't see a further extension
being useful if they have not agreed to the basic formulation and the
bottom line that the world requires to have confidence that they're not
pursuing a nuclear weapon," Obama said at a joint press conference in
the White House on Monday with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
He
added that the time has come for Tehran to make a decision on whether
to accept a nuclear agreement. “They need to make a decision.”
Obama
said technical issues were no longer an obstacle in reaching a
comprehensive deal with Iran. "The issues now are -- does Iran have the
political will and the desire to get a deal done?" he said.
On
Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said it would be “impossible”
to extend talks with Iran if the negotiating sides do not “the outlines
of the agreement" in upcoming weeks.
Iran and the P5+1 states -
the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany - are in talks to
narrow their differences and pave the way for a final, long-term accord
aimed at putting an end to the 12-year-old dispute over Tehran’s nuclear
energy program.
The scale of Iran’s uranium enrichment and the
timetable for the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions are seen as major
sticking points in the talks.
The illegal sanctions on Iran have
been imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Tehran is pursuing
non-civilian objectives in its nuclear program.
Iran rejects the
allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for
peaceful purposes.
In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous
inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any
evidence showing that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted
to nuclear weapons production.
In an interview with
Press TV on Sunday, an American scholar of international relations said
there will be no nuclear deal “unless the US is willing to recognize
equality with Iran as a negotiating partner.”
“I don’t think the
secretary of state can set a time limit and a framework and expect Iran
to sign it,” Professor James Petras said.
He added that the US
“has to negotiate in good faith, recognizing certain boundaries that
Iran has set regarding its nuclear program, regarding its conditions
under which it’s facing threats from Israel, and other nuclear powers.”
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