Seven former Iranian MPs who currently reside abroad have issued a letter addressed to Islamic Republic and U.S. leaders, calling for direct talks between Tehran and Washington to resolve their atomic disputes.
The Kaleme opposition website reported on Tuesday that the letter addresses Ayatollah Khamenei and Barack Obama as well as Catherine Ashton, the head of EU foreign Policy.
The letter’s signatories maintain that “transparent bilateral negotiations” between Iran and the U.S. could be “beneficial and effective” with regards to the nuclear disputes with Iran.
They maintain that direct and unmediated talks between high-ranking officials of the two countries would “create further assurances of a peaceful resolution of the nuclear dossier.”
The letter is signed by Ahmad Salamatian, Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari, Ali Mazrouyi, Nurredin Pirmoazen, Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, Esmail Gerami Moghaddam and Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoveini, seven former Iranian MPs who are currently residing outside Iran.
“If the political will of the leaders of the two countries is settled on resolving the [nuclear] issue, there are certainly many peaceful solutions that can make the new round of nuclear negotiations successful,” they write.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful and it has a right to enrich uranium to provide fuel for its research reactor. Western powers suspect that Iran’s nuclear program may have a nuclear component.
The seven former MPs call for collaborative efforts in the negotiations to find a “win-win” situation for both sides.
The former MPs add that the nuclear dispute with Iran has turned into a “chronic and complex problem that, if immediate steps are not taken to resolve it, could seriously threaten world peace and the substantive and long-term interests of Iran, the U.S. and European countries.”
The letter was issued one day before IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts arrives in Iran with the IAEA delegation to give the nuclear negotiations another go.
