Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif: White House misrepresenting and exaggerating Iran's nuclear concessions

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lambasted the Obama administration for misrepresenting and exaggerating the concessions made by Iran during the Geneva nuclear agreement that the White House signed off on in November of last year.

"The White House version [of the agreement] both underplays the concessions and overplays Iranian commitments", Zarif said, adding, "Why don't we all stick to what we agreed? Why do we need to produce different texts?"

According to a White House fact sheet issued shortly after the Geneva agreement was reached, Iran agreed to halt all enrichment above 5% and "dismantle the technical connections required to enrich above 5%."

The Iranian Foreign Minister said that the the White House is trying to "portray it as basically a dismantling of Iran's nuclear program."

"That is the word they use time and again," he said, adding, "If you find a single, a single word, that even closely resembles dismantling or could be defined as dismantling in the entire text, then I would take back my comment."

"We are not dismantling any centrifuges," Zarif insisted. "We're not dismantling any equipment, we're simply not producing, not enriching over 5%."