New Delhi: US Under Secretary Wendy Sherman on behalf of the United States asked India and other countries to wait for a final nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers before actively engaging with Tehran.
“I would say ‘hold your horses’. We are not quite to an agreement yet,” Sherman said, referring to India and other buyers of Iranian oil that want to increase their trade ties with Tehran.
Diplomats are negotiating to fill the gaps of the April 2 framework agreement that would curb Iran’s nuclear programme, allaying Western fears it could develop an atomic bomb, in return for relief from international sanctions.
However, according to United States further tough negotiations lie ahead and no guarantees that a deal will be secured by a June 30 deadline.
“We understand that nobody wants to be last in line, everybody wants to be first in line, if the sanctions do get relieved,” said Sherman, who has been negotiating on behalf of the United States in the long-running Iran nuclear talks.
Sherman added, terrorism and human rights related sanctions against Iran would not be lifted even if a deal was achieved by June 30, indicating that Washington was worried by Iran’s influence across the Middle East from Iraq to Lebanon and Syria to Yemen.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels have strengthened their grip over parts of Yemen, while Tehran is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s army in Syria’s civil war.
“We are still quite concerned about state-sponsored terrorism, we are quite concerned about human rights, we are quite concerned by what is happening in Yemen, what’s happening in Syria, other parts of the world, Lebanon,” she said.
On the other side, Tehran denies any involvement in terrorism.
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