Iran quits nuclear talks protesting US blacklist move
Tehran (AFP) - Iran has quit nuclear talks with world powers, accusing Washington on Friday of going against the spirit of a landmark agreement reached last month by expanding its sanctions blacklist.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the major powers in the talks, both played down the suspension and said talks were expected to resume soon.
But Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said the US move went against the spirit of the deal struck in Geneva under which the powers undertook to impose no further sanctions for six months in exchange for Iran curbing its controversial nuclear activities.
Tehran was now weighing the "appropriate response," Araqchi told the Fars news agency as his team headed back to Tehran from Vienna.
Iran's ambassador to France, Ali Ahani, warned at a press conference in Monaco that such moves could serve to boost opposition within his country to a deal with the West.
"We are determined to implement our commitments. We must be sure that the other side is serious, and that we can show our people that we can trust them and that Western countries are reliable partners," he said.
A senior official of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, told Fars: "Government officials should ... take practical measures proportionate to the act of the other party."
Under the deal, Iran agreed to freeze parts of its suspect nuclear programme for six months in return for some $7 billion in relief from Western sanctions as it negotiates a final, comprehensive accord to allay suspicions it seeks a weapons capability.