FM: Iran to insist all sanctions lifted in any nuclear deal
Iran will insist that all sanctions against it are lifted as a condition for a nuclear deal, the foreign minister said on Wednesday, showing no sign of compromise on a major sticking point in its talks with world powers set to resume this week.
"This is the position that the government has insisted on from the start," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all matters of state in the Islamic Republic, said in a speech last week that the immediate lifting of sanctions must be a part of any nuclear deal. Western officials have consistently rejected that demand, and a senior European negotiator last week said the immediate lifting of all sanctions was "out of the question".
