DUBAI/GENEVA: President Hassan Rowhani, architect of Iran’s diplomatic opening to world powers, said on Sunday it had “red lines” and would not bow to threats in an apparent bid to keep hard-liners on side as Tehran edges toward a deal on its nuclear program.
He was speaking to the Iranian Parliament, a bastion of conservatives, a day after the Islamic Republic and the six powers narrowed differences at talks in Geneva and decided to resume them on Nov. 20 to try to defuse a decade-old stand-off and fears of a drift toward a wider Middle East war.
The sides seemed on the verge of a breakthrough — before cracks materialized among US and European allies as France declined to endorse the proposal under discussion, believing it did not adequately neutralize the risk of an Iranian atom bomb.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told France Inter radio that Paris desired a nuclear settlement with Iran but could not accept a “fool’s game” — in other words, a weak deal.
Diplomats said the main stumbling blocks included the status of Iran’s Arak heavy-water reactor of potential use in making bomb-grade plutonium, the fate of Iran’s stockpile of higher-enriched uranium — both acute issues for France — and the extent of relief from trade sanctions demanded by Tehran.
Rowhani told the Iranian Parliament that his negotiators had told their big power interlocutors in Geneva, “We will not answer to any threat, sanction, humiliation or discrimination.”
The United States is “not blind, and I don’t think we’re stupid” in nuclear talks with Iran, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a US television interview that aired Sunday.
The top US diplomat also insisted there is “zero gap” between the Obama administration and its commitment to Israel, with diplomatic relations between the two allies under strain over the Iran nuclear talks.
Kerry made his remarks in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” program after talks with world powers in Geneva failed to produce a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief
“Some of the most serious and capable, expert people in our government, who have spent a lifetime dealing both with Iran as well as with nuclear weapon and nuclear armament and proliferation, are engaged in our negotiation,” Kerry said, speaking after intensive talks.
“We are not blind, and I don’t think we’re stupid,” he said.
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday it was good that no deal with Iran was clinched at the weekend and that he had lobbied against scaling back sanctions by telling leaders: “What’s the rush?”