Senior Negotiator: Iran Not to Give Up Nuclear Rights

"Supreme Leader (of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei)'s confidence is our biggest backup and assurance. We assure him and all the Iranian nation that we won't step back from any of our nuclear rights," Araqchi who is in Vienna now wrote in his twitter account a few hours ago.

The sixth round of talks between Tehran and the G5+1 headed by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton officially started in Vienna early last week.

Araqchi and Deputy EU foreign policy chief Helga Schmid held several rounds of meetings in Vienna in the last few days to discuss the draft of the final deal.

The two sides also continued their talks on Tuesday in a meeting also participated by Zarif and Ashton.

^{_{EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif}}

On Thursday, Araqchi rejected some media reports alleging that Iran has reduced the number of the centrifuges that it wants to have.

A Thursday report by Reuters cited “a Western diplomat” as saying that “Iran has reduced the number of centrifuges it wants". According to the report, diplomats claimed that the Islamic Republic had signaled it would settle for a lower figure than 50,000 centrifuges.

"All the figures which are reported on the number of centrifuges are the figment of the imagination of some foreign media," Araqchi said.

Also on Thursday, the Iranian foreign minister wrote on his Facebook page that Western media speculations on the nuclear discussions between Tehran and the G5+1 should not be taken seriously as they attempt to influence the negotiations instead of reporting the events.

On Friday, Araqchi and Schmidt had another round of bilateral consultations on the final deal.

On the same day, Araqchi voiced satisfaction in the progressive trend of the sixth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the six major world powers in Vienna, but cautioned the world powers and international bodies not to try to include new issues in the negotiations.

The UN High Commissionaire for Human Rights Navi Pillay had on Thursday in a press conference on the sidelines of the Vienna nuclear negotiations between Iran and the G5+1 requested the western negotiating delegations to include human rights issue in Iran in their nuclear negotiations with Tehran in full details.

"All the sides of these negotiations, too, are fully aware of the fact that the human rights issue is totally unrelated to the matter of discussions in our ongoing nuclear talks," Araqchi pointed out.

Iran and the Group 5+1 sealed an interim deal in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24, 2013 to pave the way for a full resolution of their decade-old dispute over the former’s nuclear standoff with the West. The deal came into force on January 20.

Under the Geneva deal, dubbed the Joint Plan of Action, the six countries undertook to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Tehran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period.