(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A senior Iranian cleric urged Washington and Tehran on Friday to "join hands" to end sanctions, local media reported, underlining the support of Iran's influential religious establishment for President Hassan Rouhani's diplomatic offensive.
Rouhani made overtures to the West last week during a visit to the U.N. headquarters in New York and then spoke by telephone with U.S. President Barack Obama in the highest-level contact between the two countries since 1979.
The U.S. lead negotiator with Iran, Under-Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, has held out the possibility of giving Iran some short-term sanctions relief in return for concrete steps to slow uranium enrichment and shed light on its nuclear programme.
"We await practical measures by U.S. officials," cleric Kazem Sedighi told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran, according to Iranian television.
"The presidents of Iran and the United States should join hands and end these cruel sanctions, which have not only harmed the Iranian nation but also the American and the European nations," Sedighi said.
Iran's parliament, controlled by political factions deeply loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also strongly endorsed Rouhani's diplomatic drive on Wednesday, despite some rumblings from hardliners deeply suspicious of Washington.
Sedighi accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of wanting to sabotage the rapprochement between Tehran and Washington and also cautioned that a U.S. refusal to remove the military option from the table was a sign of its "insincerity".
In his UN speech on September 24, Rouhani criticized the sanctions against Iran as “unfair,” “cruel” and against human rights, which have affected the Iranian nation. He also stated that Iran poses no threat to the world and Tehran is ready for talks on its nuclear energy program with complete transparency.
The United States, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with the US and European Union using the claim as an excuse to impose illegal sanctions against Tehran.
Tehran has categorically rejected the allegation, arguing that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
/149
