China reiterates Iran's nuclear rights

Outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Tehran Yu Hongyang hailed Iran's confidence-building measures in January following its November nuclear deal with the six major world powers, and underlined the country's right to advance its civilian nuclear program as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Speaking in a meeting with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi, Yu reiterated China's support for Iran's legitimate right to access nuclear energy and voiced his country's opposition to sanctions imposed on Iran. He hailed Iran's resolve to constructively interact with the world. The ambassador urged further cooperation between Iran and China in the international arena. Sarmadi, for his part, touched upon the new round of talks between Iran and the six major world powers and said that China as a member of the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) could help reach a comprehensive and final deal to solve a decade-old stand-off over Iran's nuclear program. On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and his accompanying team of negotiators, left Tehran for Vienna to take part in a third round of talks with the six major world powers after the November deal between Iran and the sextet. This round of talks would be the final step before preparing a draft of a comprehensive deal between the two sides. The third round of negotiations is scheduled for April 8-9 at the UN headquarters in Vienna. A number of Iranian international law advisors are accompanying the team in the trip. Iran and the Group 5+1 ended their expert-level talks in Vienna on Saturday afternoon as the head of the Iranian team described the negotiations as useful. The experts talks between Iran and the six world powers (the US, Russia, France, China, Britain and Germany) started on Thursday and lasted for three days. Speaking after the last session of the talks, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Director-General for Political and Legal Affairs, Hamid Baeidinejad who led the Iranian delegation, described the negotiations with the expert teams of the six world powers as "useful". The talks between Tehran and the six world powers are part of efforts to seal a final deal on Iran’s nuclear energy program. The experts meeting will now be followed by talks between the top negotiators of Iran and the Sextet from April 7 to 9. Iran and the Group 5+1 representatives had several sessions of talks in Vienna on March 18-19. On November 24, Iran and the five permanent United Nations Security Council members sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over the latter's nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of the world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and impose no nuclear-related sanctions on Iran during the six-month period.