Foreign Access to Iran's Missiles Out of Question: Nuclear Negotiator
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator reiterated that nobody would ever be allowed to monitor the country's military capabilities, including its missiles.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency on Saturday, Abbas Araqchi said Iran "absolutely rejects" any foreign access to its military facilities under the pretext of addressing the so-called "possible military dimensions" of Tehran's nuclear program.
"Our missiles, either ballistic or other, will not be under the supervision and monitoring of the other side (in the nuclear talks)," the ranking diplomat added.
His comments came after Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on April 2 reached a framework nuclear agreement after more than a week of intensive negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, with both sides committed to push for a final, comprehensive accord until the end of June.
The framework provides a series of solutions that will be the basis of a comprehensive joint plan of action.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Araqchi deplored the European Union's re-imposition of sanctions on an Iranian bank and 32 shipping companies as a wrong decision.
He said the new sanctions "run counter to the necessary goodwill for continuing the (nuclear) negotiations", adding, "I believe this measure was a wrong decision at a very wrong time."
In January, the General Court of the European Union annulled the illegal bans on Bank Tejarat and 40 Iranian shipping companies, citing lack of enough evidence against them.
However, the EU's Official Journal said on Wednesday that 32 of the companies as well as Bank Tejarat are back on the sanctions list based on what it called "a new statement of reasons".
