
TEHRAN (FNA): The French delegation participating in the latest round of talks between Iran and the world powers on removal of sanctions slowed down and even obstructed the process of negotiations, a source said on Sunday.
An informed source said that the French negotiating team in Vienna talks played an obstructive role, saying that works on Vienna drafts was progressing during the two-day absence of the French delegation.
The source said that the French delegation played no constructive role in the latest round of talks and even slowed down the process of negotiations.
The source added that after the French team returned to the negotiations and showed opposition to the drafts, the negotiations process was disturbed.
In relevant remarks on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian had said that his country will not accept the western sides’ excessive demands in the Vienna talks, blasting France for unconstructive behavior.
“In the last round of the Vienna talks, after two stages of negotiations, we reached a single document and agenda, and there was a significant progress in the previous two rounds of talks. In the negotiations, in general, I did not see the position of certain European countries, specially France, as constructive. We hope that the French side will play a constructive role and the Iranian people’s rights will be restored realistically,” Amir Abdollahian said in a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein in Tehran.
“The second problem with the three European countries is that in practice they did not show any new initiative in the negotiations.
He described the coordinator role played by EU Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Enrique Mora Mora and EU Foreign Policy Chief Joseph as positive, and said in the previous rounds of talks the American side sent some unwritten messages to the meeting and received the necessary answers.
“Iran pursues the talks in Vienna with good will and seriousness. The other sides should have no doubt if they mean to give one point and take ten, Iran will not accept it. Our goal is to materialize (implementation of) obligations by all parties under the nuclear deal. When they (the western sides) say that we are concerned about the progress of Iran’s nuclear program, we say out loud that if they want their concerns to be obviated, all sanctions should be lifted.
The day the opposite parties show their serious will, will be the day when we can talk about the return of all parties to their undertakings under the nuclear deal,” Amir Abdollahian said.
The European Union issued a statement on Thursday, announcing that the next Joint Commission meeting of the Joint Comprehension of Plan of Action (JCPOA) will be held in Vienna on December 27.
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