TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that his country has not quit the Vienna talks and would not stop taking part, claiming that his administration is using the agreement to guarantee the rights of the Iranian people.
Raisi stated his administration follows Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s nuclear plan, speaking at an event to commemorate Iran’s Nuclear Technology Day.
In a statement to Western nations, Iran’s senior conservative official claimed that the country’s nuclear program is peaceful in nature and that nuclear weapons have no place in Iran’s “defense doctrine.”
“In the (nuclear) negotiations, the government considers it a duty not to back down from the rights of the people,” Raisi told the primarily official gathering from the nuclear industry.
Last month, the eighth round of talks in Vienna was called off due to major disagreements between Tehran and Washington, notably the delisting of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The two parties have been unable to address the unresolved concerns, with Iran asserting that the ball is in its court and the United States asserting the contrary.
Economic sanctions, assassinations of key nuclear scientists, and sabotage of nuclear sites, Raisi stated defiantly, have failed to halt the country’s nuclear progress.
His comments came on the same day that Iran’s Foreign Ministry updated a blacklist of US officials accused of human rights crimes.
It added in a statement that 24 people had been named for their roles in unilateral coercion against the government and the people.
“The designated persons, as indicated, have played a role in supporting, organizing, imposing, and also intensifying the imposition of the United States’ unilateral coercive measures against the people and government of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” it added.