Iran’s Khamenei says nuclear talks will ‘lead nowhere’

Ayatollah Khamenei's comments come ahead of the resumption of negotiations between Iran and world powers in Geneva on Tuesday

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech in Tehran, Iran on February 17, 2014. Iran's top leader backs the continuation of nuclear negotiations with the West but says he doubts they will succeed. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/AP PhotoShow less

TEHRAN // Iran’s top decision-maker Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that while he is not against a resumption of nuclear negotiations with the world’s major powers, the talks will “lead nowhere”.

“Some of the officials of the previous government as well as the officials of this government think the problem will be resolved if they negotiate the nuclear issue,” Mr Khamenei said in remarks published on his website Khamenei.ir.

“I repeat it again that I am not optimistic about the negotiations and they will lead nowhere but I am not against them,” he added.

Iran and world powers embark on Tuesday on the Herculean task of transforming their interim nuclear deal into a long-term accord satisfying all sides and silencing talk of war for good.

After a decade of failure and rising tensions, US President Barack Obama has put the chances of an agreement at “50-50”, while Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has predicted “difficult” discussions.

Getting a deal could also help bear fruit in other areas, not least in the three-year-old Syrian civil war where Tehran has staunchly backed President Bashar Al Assad. The latest peace talks ended in acrimony in Geneva on Saturday.

The scheduled three-day meeting in Vienna between Iran and the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — the so-called P5+1 — is the first in what is expected to be a series of tricky encounters in the coming months.

It comes after foreign ministers struck a breakthrough deal in Geneva on November 24 that saw Iran agree to curb — for six months — some of its nuclear activities in exchange for minor relief from painful sanctions.

That agreement, which came into force on January 20, extends the theoretical “breakout time” needed by Iran — which denies seeking the bomb — to produce enough highly-enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

In return Iran is due to get over the six months some $6-7 billion (Dh22-26 billion) in sanctions relief, including $4.2 billion in assets frozen in overseas bank accounts. It was also promised no new sanctions.

But Iran’s freeze is only temporary — although it can be extended — and the bulk of sanctions remain, continuing to deprive Iran of billions of dollars in oil revenues every week.

Under the “comprehensive” deal now being sought, which the parties aim to conclude and commence implementing by November, the powers will want Iran to scale back its activities permanently.

These might include closing the Fordo facility, slashing the number of centrifuges enriching uranium, cutting its stockpile of fissile material and altering a new reactor being built at Arak, diplomats say.

This, plus tighter UN inspections, would not remove entirely Iran’s capability to get the bomb but it would make it substantially more difficult -- “impossible”, according to Mr Obama.

Mr Khamenei said Iran would abide by its pledge to pursue the negotiations.

“The work that has been started by the foreign ministry will continue and Iran will not violate its commitment, but I repeat it again, it will lead to nowhere,” Mr Khamenei said.

Mr Zarif, who is leading Tehran’s negotiating team, arrived in Vienna on Monday. He is scheduled to meet EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton over a working dinner.

Iranian media reported the negotiations would officially begin Tuesday morning.

* AFP