Iran on Tuesday refused to halt its nuclear work for at least 10 years – a condition which President Barack Obama said was non-negotiable if the two sides are to reach a deal on the country’s nuclear program.
The refusal came after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif and United States Secretary of State John Kerry met for a second day of negotiations in the Swiss lakeside town of Montreaux.
On Monday, Obama told Reuters that Iran must commit to a verifiable halt of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear work for a landmark atomic deal to be reached.
"Iran will not accept excessive and illogical demands," Zarif was quoted as saying by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency following Tuesday’s meeting with Kerry.
"Obama’s stance… is expressed in unacceptable and threatening phrases…," he said, adding that talks with Kerry in Switzerland would nonetheless carry on.
The US hopes Iran will restrain its nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy, thereby reducing the risk of war over the protracted stand-off
In Washington, Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday delivered his much-anticipated speech to Congress, which heard the Israeli Prime Minister accuse Iran of using its nuclear program to develop a weapon.
Netanyahu warned against accepting a nuclear deal with Iran that would be a “countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare” by a country that "will always be an enemy of America.”
© AP PHOTO/ EVAN VUCCI, POOL
US Secretary of State John Kerry, right, walks to a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for a new round of nuclear negotiations Tuesday in Montreux, Switzerland.
"If the deal now being negotiated is accepted by Iran, that deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons; it will all but guarantee that Iran will get those nuclear weapons – lots of them,” Netanyahu said in a point-by-point critique of Obama's Iran diplomacy.
Credit to Sputnik
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