ABU DHABI: Iranian hardliners stepped up criticism of Tehran’s negotiations with world powers over its nuclear programme yesterday, but negotiators defended the planned deal that could lead to an end to economic sanctions.
The hardliners, unsettled by the shift to a more moderate foreign policy since President Hassan Rowhani took office in August, have repeatedly criticised the talks in recent months but Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei backs them.
Iran and six world powers — the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China — struck an interim deal in November under which Tehran agreed to limit some of its nuclear work in return for the easing some sanctions imposed on Iran for its disputed atomic program.
They set a July 20 deadline to clinch a long-term deal that would allow a gradual lifting of all nuclear-related sanctions.
In their latest charge, critics of the negotiations leaked an audio recording purporting to show Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticising Rowhani’s view of the nuclear programme, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Araghchi lashed out at his critics yesterday, saying the audio filed was “selected and distorted” and urging them not to play politics with what he called Iran’s nuclear rights.
“I am worried. How far is this toying with our national interests going to go?” he was quoted as saying by IRNA, which did not name his hardline critics but said they appeared to belong to the far-right Steadfast Front party.
Reuters
