Tehran, Jan 19, IRNA Iranian deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs reacted Saturday to the publication of a non-paper, unofficial nuclear document by the US, arguing that its publication means regarding it as an official, binding document.Seyyed Abbas Araqchi said that although Iran has nothing to hide, and had already even forwarded that document for various officials, the official text of the agreements reached in Geneva, which are quite transparent has already been published for the public.
After the Geneva deal, we began negotiations on how to implement them, whose result was achieving shared interpretations orally, which were later on out down in the framework of a non-paper text as an unofficial document, he said.
He added that that unofficial document is not confidential so that the Iranian side would try to conceal it and to do intelligence work about it, as the negotiation team has provided the countrys various officials copies of it, including the copy that was sent to the Parliament, as everything is quite transparent.
The reason why we said we were opposed to the US move in that respect is that by public publishing of that document they have considered it as an official document, which is by no means serving either sides interests in the course of the negotiations. Yet, after it was announced that the Geneva deal had been approved, we immediately published it and informed the Iranian people that such a document exists, the top nuclear negotiator reiterated.
Araqchi reiterated that the US administration has most probably published that unofficial document under the pressure imposed by the US Congress members, so that as they have assumed, their information dissemination will be fully transparent.
In fact, keeping in mind the problems that the White House is faced with in dealing with the Congress, this issue is a unilateral move aimed at addressing the internal difficulties of the US administration, since otherwise, from our point of the view it is not an index for making judgments and for evaluation, said Araqchi.
He also once again stressed that if the other side will fail in meeting its commitments, the Islamic Republic of Iran can immediately switch back its nuclear activities to their former position.
Iran has pledged to start eliminating some of its uranium stockpile on January 20.
That gives an official start time for the six-month interim deal with the six world powers, which was first announced in November.
As part of the agreement, Iran has agreed to start eliminating its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium, to dismantle some infrastructure that makes higher-level uranium enrichment possible, and not to start up additional centrifuges.
During that six month period and for duration of another six months that can be extended only once, the two sides are expected to work towards reaching a permanent solution to their dispute, which will lead to lifting the entire imposed sanctions.
Representatives from the United Nations? nuclear watchdog agency will also monitor Iran?s nuclear facilities and make sure the country is taking the required steps as part of the deal.
In exchange, some sanctions against Iran will be eased as part of what the White House calls ?modest relief.?
The US officials estimate the overall sanctions relief provided to Iran as part of the deal will total around $7 billion -- $4.2 billion of which consists of restricted Iranian assets that will be freed up gradually.
By IRNA
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