France warned on Tuesday that “insufficient” progress has been made toward a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers with specific disparities over research and development and the issue of sanctions.
“Iran must now make difficult choices if it truly wishes to regain the trust of the international community,” French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told a United Nations Security Council meeting on U.N. sanctions on Iran.
“We are determined to come to a solid agreement … which enables the establishment and guarantee in the long term of the exclusively peaceful aims of the Iranian nuclear program,” Delattre said.
Britain’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Peter Wilson told the council: “Iran will need to show greater flexibility and take some tough decisions in the coming days if we are to achieve a deal.”
U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador David Pressman told the council: “There are still significant gaps and important choices that need to be made in these negotiations.”
“We are working to see if we can get to a political framework by the end of March that addresses the major elements of a comprehensive deal,” he added.
Ali Khamenei, the Supreme leader of the clerical regime in Iran, called for “Death to America” on Saturday, a day after President Barack Obama appealed to that regime to seize a “historic opportunity” for a nuclear deal.
Khamenei told a crowd in the city of Mashhad that his regime would not capitulate to Western demands. When the crowd started shouting, “Death to America,” the ayatollah responded: “Of course yes, death to America, because America is the original source of this pressure.
Obama, in a message to Iranians celebrating the Persian new year this week, suggested that success at the talks could build on trust, proclaiming it was up to Iran “to seize this moment and the possibilities that can bloom.”
But Ali Khamenei told the crowd: “Negotiations with America are solely on the nuclear issue and nothing else,”
“We do not talk with U.S. over regional issues. In the regional issues, America’s goals are completely opposed to our goals.”
Khamenei also demanded that a nuclear deal end economic sanctions on his regime at its outset, rather than gradually, as the United States and five other world powers have said during negotiations.
“Sanctions must be lifted immediately,” Khamenei said.
