Ayatollah Sediqi Urges West to Remove Anti-Iran Sanctions to Prove Goodwill

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Tehran's provisional Friday Prayers Leader Kazzem Sediqi advised the West to lift or relieve sanctions against Iran during the upcoming talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 in Baghdad next month in a bid to prove its goodwill and win the Iranian nation's trust.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) resumed negotiations in Istanbul on April 14 after more than a year of stalled talks and are due to continue their negotiations in a second meeting in Iraq's capital city, Baghdad, on May 23.

Addressing a large congregation of worshippers on Tehran University Campus on Friday, Kazem Seddiqi said if the Group 5+1 shows logical behavior in talks, the outcome will be good for all.

He added Iran supports logic and negotiations and had many times shown its good intention in talks and now it is their (5+1 Group) turn to show their good intention.

Tehran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili headed the Iranian side, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton led the delegations of the world powers.

Both Jalili and Ashton voiced satisfaction with the Istanbul talks.

Iran's chief negotiator said after two rounds of fruitful talks with the six world powers that withdrawing sanctions against Iran should be a focal point in any future talks on cooperation between Iran and the world powers.

"It is of crucial importance that our (future) cooperation will entail reciprocal steps, that is, our nation's trust should be built in the trend of talks and cooperation," Jalili told reporters at a press conference after the second meeting with the representatives of the G5+1 in Istanbul.

He said the Iranian nation is only demanding "the very same rights enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)", and reiterated, "Iran, as an active member of the NPT, should enjoy its rights alongside its undertakings."

"We deeply believe that removal of sanctions, which is demanded by the Iranian nation, is one of the issues which should receive attention in the trend of talks on cooperation," the Iranian top negotiator underscored.

Despite the hostile policies and moves of the United States and its European allies, Iran has shown a promising trend of growth in area of economy.

Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical.

Yet, last year the US and the European Union approved a set of extra unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, mostly targeting the country's energy and banking sectors, including a US boycott of gasoline supplies to Iran.

Iran says that western sanctions and pressures have only consolidated the Iranians' national resolve and encouraged them to reach self-sufficiency in many economic areas, including gasoline production.

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