Ahmadinejad Says Sanctions Make Nuclear Talks 'More Difficult'
New sanctions imposed on Iran by Western nations make the prospect of international talks on its nuclear program "more difficult," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday in an interview with an Iranian state-run television network.
"They keep making it more difficult for them to negotiate with us," he said on the Jam e Jam channel, which is broadcast via satellite to the Iranian diaspora.
"You impose resolutions, sanctions, you use all tools against us, and you want to come and negotiate?" Ahmadinejad asked in a rhetorical jab at the United States and its allies.
The United States, Britain and Canada on Monday announced they were imposing fresh unilateral sanctions on Iran's financial sector. France is also pushing its European Union partners to cut Iranian oil imports.
Ahmadinejad said those positions undercut a push by the so-called P5+1 -- comprising the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, plus non-member Germany -- to restart stalled talks with Iran.
"They always create limitations for themselves. We have always said we are ready for talks and cooperation. Talks are better than confrontation, but they seem to be clueless and keep going back to confrontation," he said.
Iranian officials have said through several rounds of U.N. sanctions and additional Western sanctions over the past two years that the measures made the chances of resuming negotiations more remote, although they never shut the door on them.
Ahmadinejad likewise did not exclude talks restarting, but he voiced skepticism. "Well, we'll negotiate but what do (5+1 countries) have left to tell us?" he asked.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who represents the P5+1, last week urged Iran to resume the talks, which are aimed at removing Western fears that Tehran's nuclear program is being used to create atomic weapons.
Iran, which has denied any military dimension to its nuclear activities, has said it is ready to return to negotiations, but insists that they include other topics outside the nuclear issue.
In the interview, Ahmadinejad said Iran was in the "same bloc" as Russia and China on the international stage, though each country was pursuing its own interests.
"China and Russia have a closer stance to us when it comes to international issues, rather than the U.S. and its allies," he said.
"We cooperate with Russia and China, but we cannot expect them to sacrifice their national interests -- as they cannot expect us to do so," he said.
Opposition from Russia and China to the new Western sanctions prevented the measures from being brought to the U.N. Security Council for wider adoption.
Source: Agence France Presse
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