Iran: Deputy foreign minister defends nuclear policy; outlines foreign policy.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Excerpt from report by Iranian Fars News Agency website

[Subheadings as published]

Deputy foreign minister for Euro-American affairs has described one of America's important mistakes as that of denying the "reality of Iran". He said: In view of our 28 years of experience, we call on the West to consider the effectiveness of sanctions. The fact is that the more pressure they put on us, the stronger we become.

In a two-and-a-half-hour interview to Fars news agency, Sa'id Jalili responded to a variety of questions on Iran's relationship with Europe, nuclear programme, foreign policy, relationship with America and ... [ellipses as published].

The West seeks to deprivation not transparency

Regarding our nuclear case, Jalili said that it was not a complicated case at all. Describing it as a technical and judicial case, he said: As a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, we have fulfilled all our safeguard commitments, and it is the IAEA that should be dealing with our case.

Describing confidence-building as a two-way street, Jalili said: Our confidence-building initiatives have gone beyond our safeguard commitments.

Stressing that Iran is confident about is conduct, Mottaki's deputy said: We have expressed our readiness to show that our conduct in terms of nuclear activities is peaceful.

Noting that Iran has taken the necessary initiatives to allay the concerns of the other side, the deputy foreign minister said: It is now their turn to alleviate our concerns and respect Iran's rights.

Describing Iran's reasoning in the nuclear debate as …