Iranhas said comments inBarack Obama's State of the Union speech about how sanctions linked to its nuclear programme had forced Tehran to the negotiating table were "unrealistic and unconstructive"."The delusion of sanctions having an effect on Iran's motivation for nuclear negotiations is based on a false narration of history," Iran's foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham was quoted as saying by state broadcaster IRIB.
President Obama, in his address on Tuesday, said US and international pressure had led to the interim deal struck in November between Iran and six global powers, under which Tehran agreed to scale back uranium enrichment in return for sanctions relief.
"American diplomacy, backed by pressure, has halted the progress of Iran's nuclear programme and rolled parts of that programme back," Obama said. "The sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible."
Read more here
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
