Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani criticized US President Barack Obama for being unable to make "sensible" decisions regarding nuclear talks between Iran and the major powers due to his "weakness" and "domestic problems".
"Mr. Obama has recently said we (US officials) are pressuring Iran to accept our views about the nuclear issue… at present the objective behind their engagement in the negotiations with Iran has become clear. They say you should give in to our demands, but where in the world is this approach called negotiations?" Larijani said in an address to an open session of parliament on Sunday, IRNA reported.
He also said, "It is clear that Mr. Obama is not able to make sensible decisions in the face of the reasonable flexibility demonstrated by the Iranian nation and government due to his weakness and domestic problems, and he wants Iran to yield to irrelevant demands or face the failure of the talks.
"Mr. Obama should be fully aware that the Iranian nation will not surrender and he with his wrong policy on the talks would be responsible for the collapse of the talks."
***US Indecision
First Deputy Parliament Speaker Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabifard also said on Sunday the US is now "in a weak position" in the talks between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) over Tehran's nuclear program and "lacks the ability to make decisions."
After failing to meet two deadlines to work out a comprehensive nuclear deal to resolve the 12-year dispute on Tehran's nuclear program over the past year, Iran and its international negotiating partners are now in talks with the aim of reaching a political understanding by the end of March with a view to finalizing the details of a long-term accord, which would impose constraints on Iran's nuclear work for a specified period of time in exchange for the phasing out of sanctions, by the new self-imposed June 30 target date.
Iran and the six major powers (the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany) made limited progress in their most recent round of talks in Geneva on January 18, but agreed to step up efforts to hammer out a final agreement building on a preliminary deal they signed in November 2013, under which Iran agreed to temporarily scale down parts of its nuclear activities in return for limited sanctions relief. A new round of nuclear talks with the P5+1 is set to be held this month at a venue yet to be decided.
