The Iranian regime on Tuesday rejected as “unacceptable” a demand by U.S. President Barack Obama that Tehran freeze its sensitive nuclear activities for at least 10 years.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, the regime’s Foreign Minister was quoted by state-run Fars News Agency as saying: “Obama’s stance … is expressed in unacceptable and threatening phrases … Iran will not accept excessive and illogical demands … Tehran will continue nuclear negotiations with the six powers.”
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Obama said the Iran must commit to a verifiable halt of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear work for a landmark atomic deal to be reached between Tehran and six major powers.
“If, in fact, Iran is willing to agree to double-digit years of keeping their programme where it is right now and, in fact, rolling back elements of it that currently exist … if we’ve got that, and we’ve got a way of verifying that, there’s no other steps we can take that would give us such assurance that they don’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said in an interview with Reuters.
Obama’s comment about the time frame for a freeze represents one of the U.S. government’s strongest signals yet of its red line for a successful deal, the Reuters report said.