VIENNA (Sputnik) — Sanctions against Iran have achieved nothing but harmed innocent people and antagonized a peaceful nation, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in a video statement released on Friday.
For years, the West has been accusing Iran of developing nuclear weapons under the guise of a peaceful nuclear energy program. Anti-Iran sanctions imposed by the United Nations, United States and the European Union, banned sales of Iranian oil products and prohibited the West’s nuclear cooperation with Iran.
"I sense that my negotiating partners have recognized that coercion and pressure never leads to lasting solutions but to more conflict and further hostility," Zarif said.
"Now they realize that the most indiscriminate and unjust economic sanctions against my country have achieved absolutely none of their declared objectives. But instead have harmed and antagonized a peaceful and forgiving nation," the minister stressed.
Zarif added that his country was ready to strike a full-fledged balanced deal on Tehran's nuclear program with the P5+1 negotiators, in order to jointly address common challenges.
In April, Iran and six world powers reached a preliminary political framework deal on the issue in Switzerland's Lausanne.
