Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw[/caption]Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says he is "optimistic" about the implementation of an interim nuclear deal between Iran and six major world powers.
In a meeting with the head of Iran-Britain Parliamentary Friendship Group, Abbas Ali Mansouri Arani, in Tehran on Tuesday, Straw added that Iran has an inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council Russia, China, France, Britain and the US plus Germany sealed an interim nuclear agreement in Geneva on November 24, 2013.
Under the Geneva deal, the six world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against the Islamic Republic in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period.
Straw, who arrived in Tehran on Tuesday at the head of a four-member parliamentary delegation, further said that despite the ups and downs in Iran-Britain ties, both sides seek the improvement of relations in line with mutual interests.
The Iran-Britain Parliamentary Friendship Group has always called for the expansion of bilateral relations and opposed extremist views on the enhancement of Tehran ties with the West, Straw added.
Mansouri Arani, for his part, said dual approaches taken by the US and the West to issues including Irans nuclear energy program, terrorism, the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) and the Israeli regimes weapons of mass destruction have played a significant role in undermining the Iranian nations confidence in mutual ties.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has always carried out its nuclear activities based on the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] regulations and like other signatories to the treaty, Tehran calls for its absolute and legal rights, the Iranian lawmaker added.
By Press TV
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