“I hope the opposite side would come to an understanding that sanctions harm not only the Iranian nation, but also themselves,” Mohammad Javad Zarif said at panel discussion moderated by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, held on the sidelines of the 51st Munich Security Conference in Germany on Sunday.
Although sanctions have turned into the main obstacle to the nuclear talks, “we have even made some progress on that issue,” Zarif added.
Commenting on the meetings between Iran and the US as a member of the group of six world powers engaged in nuclear talks with Tehran, Zarif said, “There is much distrust. Iranians are pessimistic about America’s intent.”
The Iranian foreign minister said his critics have the right to remain pessimistic about every diplomatic meeting with the US officials, because the “US enmity is not over.”
Zarif has held two bilateral meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry over the past three days in Munich for nuclear talks.
Asked about the possibility of another extension to the deadline for reaching a comprehensive deal, Zarif said in the panel discussion that extending the deadline “is not in anybody’s interests.”
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Following an interim nuclear deal signed in Geneva in November 2013, two deadlines for a final, comprehensive deal have been missed, and now a third one is looming on July 1.