Judiciary chief: Tehran won't give up nuclear rights

Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani has said that the Western pressure on Iran will not compel the Islamic Republic to give up its nuclear rights. “The Iranian people will not retreat from the firm steps they have taken on the path to access nuclear energy for peaceful purposes , and the Westerners should put this wishful thinking out of their mind,” Larijani said on Wednesday in response to an EU statement issued on May 7 saying that Iran must suspend uranium enrichment. “European countries have recently issued an illogical statement, and the U.S. secretary of state (Hillary Clinton) has made hostile remarks in India, which were not expected after the previous talks,” he said. “If after the positive talks in Turkey, the Westerners are seeking to change the course of the talks toward the policy of negotiation-pressure, they should know that they are totally mistaken,” Iran’s most senior judge noted. Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) held a new round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in Istanbul on April 14, breaking a 15-month hiatus in talks, and agreed to meet again in Baghdad on May 23. Elsewhere in his remarks, Larijani said the talks in Baghdad will be successful if the West tries to win the Iranian nation’s confidence. “The Westerners will get nowhere through imposing sanctions, threatening, and issuing illogical statements, and should try to create a sensible and logical atmosphere,” he said.