Roundup: Iran rules out excessive demands as deal deadline nears

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday endorsed the performance of Iran's nuclear negotiators against mounting criticism from hardliners, just one month before the June 30 deadline for a final deal with world powers.

No one should talk rudely to Iran's nuclear negotiators who work hard for the best interest of the country, Rouhani said in response to some lawmakers' accusations that the negotiators have given in to Iran's opponents on key security issues, Iranian media reported.

Addressing provincial governors, Rouhani said the nuclear negotiations, as a matter of the whole nation and system, go beyond factional politics, according to IRNA news agency.

Iran's negotiation team performs within the framework of the opinions and red lines of the country's political establishment, PressTV quoted Rouhani as saying.

The president called Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a "warrior in the diplomatic frontline," who leads Iran's negotiators to fight for Iran's rights, PressTV reported.

Rouhani also hailed the progress in the nuclear talks. "Although we have not achieved a final success in the nuclear negotiations yet, we have taken major steps," Rouhani said.

Zarif faced fierce criticism at an Iranian parliament session last week, as his deputy Abbas Araqchi reportedly confessed that Iranian negotiators had accepted managed inspections on Iran's military sites.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said earlier that his country would not accept excessive demands, including inspections on its military sites.

Iran will not discuss inspection of its military sites in the ongoing nuclear talks with world powers, Araqchi said on Friday. Iranian negotiators are committed to the "decisive and serious guideline" of the supreme leader, he added.

Talks to clinch a final agreement over Iran's nuclear program are likely to go beyond the previously imposed June 30 deadline, Araqchi said earlier in Vienna during talks.

However, the United States said it is not contemplating an extension of the talks beyond deadline.

The P5+1 countries, the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, are making efforts to reach a final deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program by the deadline, U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said at a regular briefing on Wednesday, as Iran and world powers resumed a new round of negotiations in a bid to finalize an accord on Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Zarif began talks in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the removal of sanctions against Iran and inspections on Iran's military and nuclear sites under the possible nuclear deal ahead of the deadline.

The late June deadline was agreed by the negotiators in November 2014, after a failed attempt to reach a comprehensive nuclear deal.

The parties were divided in limiting Iran's uranium enrichment capacity and the steps to lift sanctions that are crippling the Iranian economy. Endit