Iran Says Obama Nuclear Remarks 'Unacceptable'
Iran's foreign minister rejected Tuesday as "unacceptable" remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama who said a minimum 10-year nuclear deal offered the best hope of avoiding an atomic-armed Tehran.
Mohammad Javad Zarif was speaking in Switzerland, where he and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met for a second day to seek a framework for a deal to rein in Tehran's nuclear program by a March 31 deadline.
He spoke as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to give a speech to U.S. Congress Tuesday attacking the emerging deal and reportedly planning to unveil details of why he sees it as a grave danger to Israel.
Obama said Monday that if Iran is "willing to agree to double-digit years of keeping their program where it is," even rolling back elements of it, and that such a freeze is verifiable, "there's no other steps we can take that would give us such assurance that they don't have a nuclear weapon."
Zarif said: "It is clear that Mr Obama's posture is aimed at winning public support and countering the propaganda of the prime minister (Netanyahu) and other extremist opponents of the negotiations, using unacceptable and threatening terms and formulations."
In his remarks in Montreux, carried by the official IRNA news agency, he added that Iran "will not yield in the face of excessive demands and the illogical posture of the other party."
The so-called P5+1 group -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany -- is pressing Iran to reach an accord that would guarantee that Tehran would not develop a nuclear weapon, an objective the Islamic republic denies it has.
Source: Agence France Presse
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