Senior European lawmaker calls for removal of sanctions on Iran

Head of the European Parliament’s (EP) delegation to Iran Hannes Swoboda expressed optimism about the future of the talks between Iran and the Group5+1 (the US, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany), and called for lifting the sanctions imposed against Tehran. Speaking at a meeting with Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi in Tehran on Monday, Swoboda, who is Head of the Socialist Fraction and EP's Presiding Board member, pointed to the EP’s efforts to lift sanctions against Iran and noted that the first steps to achieve that goal has been taken during Iran’s recent nuclear talks with the world powers and if the negotiations are carried out based on goodwill the world will witness a better political atmosphere. The EP delegation, comprised of three Socialist European lawmakers, arrived in Tehran on Saturday for a four-day visit. In a press conference on Monday, Swoboda downplayed the effectiveness of the sanctions against Iran, and called for their gradual removal. Swoboda pointed to the changes taken place in Iran since his last visit to the country, and said, “My last visit to Iran took place 12 years ago and the country has gone under abundant economic development and construction activities since then as if it had not been under any sanction… .” The European lawmaker pointed to the sanctions against Iran, and said, “The sanctions should be removed and in my opinion this is possible in a step-by-step manner … and I hope this problem will be resolved soon.” Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical. On Wednesday, Iran and the G5+1 wrapped up two days of talks and agreed to meet again in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 7-8. At the end of the negotiations, EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton who represented the world powers in talks with Iran hailed the nuclear negotiations as the “most detailed” and most “substantive” ones ever held between the two sides. Washington and its western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path. Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.