Iran says nuclear failure would be a disaster.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif held a rare meeting with his US counterpart and said it would be a "disaster" if Tehran did not transform the interim agreement to resolve a decade-long dispute over its nuclear program into a permanent one.
By Adrian Croft and Alexandra Hudson
MUNICH, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister held a rare meeting with his US counterpart and said it would be a "disaster" if Tehran did not transform the interim agreement to resolve a decade-long dispute over its nuclear program into a permanent one.
In a sign of thawing relations between the Islamic Republic and the West, Iranian President Mohammed Javad Zarif said he spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry and ministers from the six powers negotiating with Tehran during a three-day security conference in Munich.
These talks will continue in Vienna, starting on February 18, when Iran and the six powers will attempt, over a six-month period, to build a provisional agreement on Tehran's nuclear activities in order to reach a permanent understanding.
"What I can promise is that we will approach these negotiations with political will and good faith to reach an agreement because it would be very foolish of us to bargain for just six months," Zarif said in a press conference after his meeting with Kerry.
"It would be a disaster for everyone to start a process and then abruptly end it in six months," he added.
Zarif stated that Iran and the West have a historic opportunity to improve their relations. "I think we need to seize it," he said.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is completely peaceful, but Western countries have long suspected that Tehran is trying to acquire the capability to develop nuclear weapons.
In a preliminary agreement in November involving the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, France, and Germany, Iran agreed to suspend the most sensitive parts of its nuclear operations in exchange for relief from international sanctions imposed on it.
The agreement reduced the risk of Israel or the United States launching a military attack against Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.
SANCTIONS
Kerry stressed to Zarif the importance of both sides negotiating in good faith and of Iran fulfilling its promises made in the November agreement, a U.S. State Department official said.
The United States and the European Union suspended some sanctions on Iran because of the interim agreement, but Kerry told Zarif that the United States will continue to enforce other sanctions.
Kerry and Zarif have met several times since the election of the relatively moderate Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in June of last year, which paved the way for a thaw in relations with the West after years of conflict and hostile rhetoric.
Zarif said Iran was prepared to address important issues in the nuclear negotiations, but noted that there was still a lack of trust on both sides, including among Iranians themselves, regarding the West's intentions.
Zarif told Reuters in an interview last Saturday, however, that Iran was not prepared to abandon its research using centrifuges to purify uranium in a possible permanent nuclear agreement.