Iran won’t back down on its ‘red lines’ in nuclear talks: Raisi

DUBAI, March 8 (Reuters) -   
Iran will not back down on its red lines in nuclear talks with major powers, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday, after the European Union said the time had come for Washington and Tehran to take political decisions needed to reach an accord.  

Eleven months of negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme have reached their final stages.  
Iran has sought to remove all sanctions and it wants guarantees from the United States that it will not abandon the deal once more, after then-U.S. President Donald Trump walked out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.  

Iran’s top negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, returned to Tehran on Monday for consultations.  

“The government pursues nuclear negotiations in full accordance with the principles and framework set by the Supreme Leader,” Raisi said, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in Tehran’s decision.  

“It has not and will not back down on any of these red lines,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Raisi as saying.