Iran nuclear dispute headed to ‘normalisation’: top cleric

AFP: The standoff between Iran and the international community over its nuclear programme is headed towards “normalisation”, a top cleric said on Friday, despite a row over whether Tehran has fully suspend uranium enrichment. “It is excluded that the issue will come before the UN Security Council. The affair is heading towards normalisation,”
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said in a Friday sermon in Tehran. AFP

TEHRAN – The standoff between Iran and the international community over its nuclear programme is headed towards “normalisation”, a top cleric said on Friday, despite a row over whether Tehran has fully suspend uranium enrichment.

“It is excluded that the issue will come before the UN Security Council. The affair is heading towards normalisation,” Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said in a Friday sermon in Tehran.

“Everything has gone well up until now. We are hoping to obtain everything that we want,” said Jannati, who heads the powerful Guardians Council — a body that screens all the Islamic republic’s laws and candidates for public office.

His upbeat comments, broadcast on public radio, came despite deadlock in talks at the UN atomic agency in Vienna after Tehran asked for exemptions from a deal with the European Union to suspend key nuclear fuel cycle activities.

Iran is hoping that the deal will mean that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) does not recommend that the country is hauled before the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme.

“The United States is going to try to provoke as many problems as possible. We hope that the Europeans are going to respect their promise and will act according to the agreement,” said Jannati.

“The Koran says: if one of the sides in a pact violates his engagements then throw the deal back in his face,” he added, describing the decision to suspend enrichment as a “bitter poison”.