Nuclear deal not against Iran dignity: FM

EghtesadOnline: Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that Iran has created a huge spiritual power in the past three decades and made a nuclear deal with the world powers that by no means was against the country's dignity.

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13 August 2016

Addressing a local meeting in Tehran, he added, in order to gain such a great spiritual power in the region, Iran has tolerated considerable pressures while sticking to 'support for regional nations and resistance' as one of its basic principles.

According to IRNA, Zarif referred to the hardships experienced by Iran during those three decades noting 'Under such circumstances, an agreement was made and no one in the world has ever claimed that Iran acted against its dignity' in the process of making that agreement.

Although the other side (Western powers) knew that Iran would never seek to develop atomic bomb as it was previously announced 'forbidden' by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, they pointlessly used the nuclear issue as a pretext for discharging Iran's strategic capacity but their efforts proved to be fruitless as a result of Iranians wisdom and their intelligence.

When they felt that Iran is strong, they decided to push it towards another direction which according to the 60 years of the United Nations history could have led to nowhere but collapse and destruction, Zarif noted.

He added the fact that the West has finally come to the conclusion that it has to enter a dialogue with Iran was resulted from an analysis that 'Iranians cannot be brought to their knees by force or sanctions.'

'West did not do a favor to anyone by the nuclear talks, we had to earn our right even if it was in the field of a diplomatic struggle,' said the foreign minister stressing that Iran succeeded to win its legitimate rights during the landmark nuclear talks.

'That is why (US Republican presidential election nominee Donald) Trump says that he would tear up the nuclear agreement,' Zarif said referring to one of the latest comments made by Trump against Iran's nuclear deal with the West, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Reacting to the comments, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran would set the deal ablaze, if US tore it up.

Zarif stressed that no one has ever claimed that the nuclear deal was against Iran's interests.