Fars News Agency :: Iran’s Chief Negotiator Views Cooperation as Basis for Dialogue

The issue was raised by Jalili, who is also Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), in a meeting with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu here in Tehran on Monday. The two sides also conferred on issues of mutual interests as well as regional and global developments. During the meeting, Chinese official expressed the hope that the upcoming meeting between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) would lead to expansion of cooperation. Earlier this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi renewed the country’s preparedness to resume negotiations with the Group 5+1 and announced that Tehran will soon send a letter to the six world powers to reiterate its readiness for talks. “Mr. Jalili as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator had earlier announced his readiness to hold talks with the G5+1 and he will announce this once again in black and white,” Salehi told FNA at the time. “We hope that the meeting will be held in a not far future,” he added. After the EU decided to impose a ban on Iranian oil, Iran called on the world powers to try to find negotiated solutions to the deadlock they have created through their wrong domestic and foreign policies against Tehran. “European Union sanctions on Iranian oil is a psychological warfare … Imposing economic sanctions is illogical and unfair, and will not stop our nation from obtaining its rights,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said. “The European countries and those who are under American pressure should think about their own interests. Any country that deprives itself of Iran’s energy market will soon see that it has been replaced by others,” he underlined. “Consensus can only be reached through serious negotiations based on a cooperative approach and not via the wrong path of sanctions,” Mehman-Parast said.