TEHRAN -- Concessions made to Iran at Vienna talks have angered Western- and Saudi-owned Persian-language media outlets, says an advisor to the Iranian negotiating team.
The remarks by Muhammad Marandi, who is also vice-president for international affairs at the University of Tehran, come amid renewed talks to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear accord through removing U.S. sanctions.
Marandi categorically rejected some media that a new draft text featuring the concessions proposed by the European Union to help the talks progress, has been “dictated by the Europeans.”
“These are the impressions of the Persian-language media owned by Western and Saudi governments,” Marandi said.
“The text is rather the result of months of negotiations accompanied by logic and resistance as well as (application of available) leverages,” he added.
The Westerners came up with the draft, saying they could not hand over any more concessions, Marandi noted, saying he had been notified by some Western reporters that the Persian-language outlets had expressed dissatisfaction with the “extent to which the West had retreated” in the face of the Islamic Republic’s demands.
Marandi said the “baseless” accusations that have been leveled by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against Iran under Western pressure have to be resolved prior to the implementation of any agreement.
The Board of Governors has, in the past, has accused Iran of withholding cooperation with the IAEA, something Tehran roundly rejects.