'West's sanctions impede nuclear talks'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warns expanding sanctions imposed on Tehran are counterproductive. 'Negotiations are preferable to conflict,' he says

News agencies|Published: 11.27.11 , 07:53

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the West of hindering the nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic, the Iranian TV reported.

Ahmadinejad said Saturday that the decision to impose further sanctions on Iran "hurts the chances for negotiations on Iran's nuclear program," the Iranian TV reported.

Related stories:

Western powers, led by the United States, Russia, China, France, the UK and Germany, want Iran to suspend its nuclear development and uranium enrichment program, which is believed to be of a military nature.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant (Photo: Reuters)

Iran vehemently claims that its atom work is for civil purposes only, but a recent International Atomic Energy Agency report suggests that the Islamic Republic is well on its way to developing nuclear weapons.

Addressing the US and Western states, Ahmadinejad said: "(The West) imposes sanctions on us and uses many means against us – and then they expect us to be willing to negotiate?"

The sanction, he said, are only impeding the negotiations: "They always seem to make it harder on themselves to negotiate with us… they create the limitations.

"The Islamic Republic has repeatedly said that it would be willing to cooperate and negotiate," he stressed. "Direct negotiations are preferable to a conflict, but the West, it seems, always chooses conflict."

Iran's refusal to abandon its nuclear activities has resulted in resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in 2010, as well as additional unilateral sanctions approved by the US Congress and the European Union. The sanctions are directed primarily against the banking, financial and energy sectors of Iran.