Earlier on Monday, US President Barack Obama repeated his claims that anti-Iran sanctions have forced Tehran to negotiate with the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UNSC members plus Germany) over its nuclear issue.
In reply, Afkham deplored Obama’s remarks and said they are mainly targeting domestic audiences and aimed at "attracting the US public opinion and confronting political rivals."
She went on to say that Iran has entered the nuclear talks given the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities and in line with its approach to have constructive interaction with the world in a bid to end this “fabricated crisis”.
The Iranian spokeswoman further underlined the futility of the US policy of sanctions and pressure, and said, "It is now crystal clear that policy of imposing pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran was ineffective in all fields, including on the pace of progress of Iran's peaceful nuclear program."
“We believe that (inefficacy of sanctions) is exactly what brought the US to the negotiation table,” she reiterated.
Afkham further noted that it is now up to the US to avoid excessive demands and resolve its internal disputes and take the final decision to prepare the grounds for a comprehensive nuclear deal.
In similar remarks earlier on Sunday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei affirmed that any nuclear deal between Iran and world powers should be implementable, stressing that "no deal will be better than a bad one," including a two-phased agreement.
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.