Iran’s Kayhan newspaper, which is closely affiliated to the cleric-led country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has protested the final text submitted by the European Union (EU) at the end of the round of negotiations aimed at reviving the nuclear agreement.
The latest round of talks for rebooting the nuclear deal had concluded in Vienna last Monday.
Hossein Shariatmadari, the managing editor of Kayhan, said that the EU’s proposal for brokering a deal is “catastrophic” and “damaging,” adding that talks “have yet to yield a result that Iran wants.”
In the newspaper's editorial, Shariatmadari wrote that negotiations have failed to reach results that guarantee the interests of Iran, especially in terms of rising to fulfill the country’s economic benefits.
Iran's Nournews website, affiliated with the country's Supreme National Security Council that makes the decisions in the nuclear talks, had protested the EU proposal as well on Tuesday.
The website said the EU as the coordinator of the talks lacked the authority to “present its proposals as the final text.”
Despite Iranian outlets insisting that the EU proposal was not in the benefit of Iran, no official statement has been made by the Iranian government and its diplomatic cable regarding the draft.
Ibrahim Azizi, the vice-chairman of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that the Commission has yet to receive any final text or draft from the negotiations.
“The final text must provide for our national interests and the strategic goals of the regime,” said Azizi, adding that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and his deputy will attend a meeting for the National Security parliamentary committee.
On Tuesday evening, the EU said that it expected Iran to respond “very quickly” to the “final text” that has emerged to revive a crippled nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
“There is no more space for negotiations,” Peter Stano, a foreign policy spokesman for the EU, told journalists in Brussels on Tuesday.
“We have a final text. So it's the moment for a decision: yes or no. And we expect all participants to take this decision very quickly.”
