N-deal could help end regional chaos: Iran speaker

Geneva, Oct 15 (IANS/EFE) Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Wednesday that reaching an agreement on his country's controversial nuclear programme would help put an end to the "chaos in the region".

"There is no direct or natural relation between the nuclear negotiations and the situation in the region, but they may be related because the conclusion of negotiations can establish mutual trust," Larijani said.

Larijani, who was in Geneva to attend a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), added that a deal could be helpful as nobody can deny that such an agreement would help to counter the instability in the region.

A new round of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 Group -- the US, Britain, China, Russia, France plus Germany -- will be held in Vienna in order to reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear capabilities before the Nov 24 deadline.

Larijani noted that time was not in their favour, referring to the general instability of the Middle East due to the rapid advance of Islamic State (IS) terrorist group which now controls vast areas of Syria and Iraq.

Regarding the ineffectiveness of the air raids launched by the US-led international coalition against the IS, he said that it was "as predicted".

"You cannot attack guerilla fighters with bombs," he said.

Larijani said that he has been following the nuclear negotiations very closely. He reaffirmed that Iran was not seeking to develop nuclear weapons capability, and insisted that his country was "transparent" about its nuclear programme.

He complained that the US was concentrating on the number of Iran's centrifuges. "This is a somewhat trivial matter and we should not haggle over trivial matters. This is not going to be useful, this is not going to solve any problems," he said.

--IANS/EFE

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