Iran's Parliament Speaker: Nuclear Agreement Not Out of Reach

Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, stated that a nuclear agreement between Tehran and global powers is not out of reach and that nuclear negotiations have made progress. The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Friday, December 14, his remarks during a press conference in the capital of Pakistan, emphasizing that the differences between Iran and the P5+1 group are resolvable. He stated, "The agreement [on the nuclear issue] is not out of reach, and I believe we have made progress in the negotiations. If there are points of disagreement, they are solvable." Previously, other officials of the Islamic Republic had also hinted at the possibility of reaching a nuclear agreement, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who mentioned that the nuclear talks are nearing a "successful conclusion." However, the parties have recently agreed to continue nuclear negotiations for another seven months, but Larijani claims that it is the Western countries that prefer to prolong the negotiations, otherwise, "the Iranian nuclear issue could have been resolved much earlier." The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament remarked, "The reason for prolonging the negotiations is clear because they made noise claiming Iran is pursuing weapons and then imposed sanctions. Now they have realized that Iran has not produced weapons, and if they reach an agreement quickly, they must answer the public's questions about why they imposed sanctions. They are forced to set conditions to resolve the problem they have created; that is the issue." Recently, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department expressed hope that the parties would reach an agreement by the end of March for a comprehensive action, after which experts would finalize the details. Abbas Araqchi, Iran's chief negotiator, also stated that "after several months of hard negotiations and addressing highly technical and complex issues, the path to reaching an understanding has largely been paved."