Don’t interfere in Iran talks, Kerry urges Congress
April 13, 2015 - 0:0
Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday urged U.S. lawmakers to allow talks with Iran on curbing its nuclear program to be completed without interference, amid threats of new sanctions.
Kerry told CBS’s “Face the Nation” he would brief lawmakers on Monday and Tuesday about the outlines of the Iran deal reached in Lausanne on April 2, saying: “I think people need to hold their fire and let us negotiate without interference and be able to complete the job over the course of the two-and-a-half months.”
Also on Sunday, a majority of Iranian lawmakers demanded the country’s negotiators publish a “fact sheet” on a newly agreed framework nuclear accord, while denouncing details laid out in an American version.
“In a letter, members of parliament asked for the publishing of an Iranian fact sheet, and so far 212 have signed it,” Javad Karimi Ghodusi, a member of the 290-seat assembly, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
On April 2, Iran and world powers agreed on a framework accord to be finalized by the end of June to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting international sanctions.
Only one official statement with limited details was issued at the time, jointly by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Later on, however, the U.S. State Department published on its website an outline of some more key issues of the framework.
Zarif criticized the U.S. version, saying on Twitter that “the solutions are good for all, as they stand. There is no need to spin using ‘fact sheets’ so early on”.
After every political event, “each side focuses on their own perspective of what has happened and what will happen and it is natural that each side highlights the parts that are more to their benefit,” Abbas Araghchi, a top Iranian negotiator, said Thursday.
“The Americans did it in written form... and our narrative which was a real one was thoroughly expressed in Mr. Zarif’s remarks. We don’t intend to publish it in writing yet, but we will do so if necessary.”
Another negotiator, Iranian Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi, said the U.S. fact sheet mixed up “truth and lies” and “it could be said that they offered their own interpretation in order to create tension in our country”.
On Thursday Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, “The main problem is that from now on details must be discussed, and since the other party is disloyal, stubborn and into backstabbing, in the discussions on details they might restrict” the negotiators and Iran.
(Source AFP