Kerman, Dec 20, IRNA

Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of Iran's Expediency Council, said here Thursday that the US secretary of state has confessed to US breaching of its vowed promise and promised that Washington would remunerate.

"When the US secretary of state tells the Iranian foreign minister that the Americans will remunerate for their breaching of their vowed promise and that the negotiations must continue, this means that the western powers' will for holding peaceful talks with Iran is serious," said Rafsanjani.

Elaborating on the post-nuclear deal developments and some sides' breaching of their agreements, he said, "The approach adopted by the West and the Americans in dealing with Iran is due to the (Iranian) people's alertness."

He added, "You people's presence in the elections and your bringing to power of this government urged and convinced the world to talk with Iran in an equal atmosphere."

Hashemi Rafsanjani said that the wrath of the Israeli Zionists is due to the respectful behavior of the world leaders in dealing with Iran's representatives and their gone with the wind propagations ever since the victory of the revolution with full force of the entire media at their disposal aimed at conveying their ideas in minds of the world nations.

He meanwhile proposed that the Iranians should remain united and to set aside the disputes and enmities, while respecting the diversity of opinions, which he said if they would be presented politely through the media and the radio television networks, they would enable the people to judge and choose based on their wisdom and their sound judgments.

Rafsanjani said that the important point is that the speakers would not mislead the people with their words so that they would chose the wrong path, which would in turn weaken Islam and the foundations of the system in the world.

He said that the efforts aimed at fomenting disputes among the people and sowing the seeds of disputes among the followers of different religious sects is a type of being unkind towards Islam.

The ayatollah said, "A while ago the Supreme Leader of the revolution in a meeting with prominent clerics considered the problems within the Islamic world to be due to the words and deeds of the extremist Shi'a and Sunni groups that consider each other as infidels, resort to terrorism, and shed innocent blood."

Rafsanjani said that the religious disputes are due to full ignorance, as the holiest Islamic text, the Glorious Qur'an, has invited the followers of every monotheist faith to have sympathy for each other and to unite around the axis of their shared beliefs, contrasted with the deeds of a bunch of extremist Shi'a and Sunni folks who consider the shedding of each others' blood as a permitted and descent act.

He said that the Iranian Shi'a and Sunni folks, though, wherever in Iran that they live , think about the prosperity and advancement of their country, and anyone who thinks otherwise is surely the mercenary of the enemies of Islam and Iran.

Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani elaborated on the religious disputes within the Pakistani, Iraqi, Syrian, and Afghan Muslim nations, saying, "This is just what the enemies need for maintaining their hegemony in the Islamic countries."

Ayatollah Rafsanjani emphasized that disputes lead to infiltration of the enemies within the rows of the people, referring to the disputes before and after the presidential election, arguing, "Those enemies who were speaking about waging war against Iran are not speaking about the need to talk with us."

He said, "Any war has a winner and a loser, but if the relations would take shape in an atmosphere of dialogue, they can also lead to win-win situations, which is the prevailing situation in the Iran-West and US negotiations' atmosphere."

Rafsanjani referred to a group's efforts aimed at securing factional benefits from the national interests in the nuclear talks, saying, "The Supreme Leader of Revolution supported the negotiating team, approved of their conduct, and appreciated their efforts, thus showing the right path to the people, but that extremist group is still trying to mislead the people."

Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani added, "The deviated words of the extremist groups in Iran and abroad should not be heeded, and you can rest assured that the truth of the matter is what the leader said: the members of the negotiation team are the truthful missioners of the revolution."

On December 12, the administration of US President Barack Obama issued new sanctions against more than a dozen companies and individuals for "providing support for" Iran's nuclear energy program.

The new sanctions came despite an interim deal which was signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain -- plus Germany in Geneva on November 24 to pave the way for the full resolution of the West's decade-old dispute with Iran over the country's nuclear energy program.

Under the Geneva deal, the six countries have undertaken 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. It was also agreed that no more sanctions would be imposed on Iran within the same timeframe.

On December 15, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the recent US sanctions against a number of Iranian entities a very wrong move, noting that Tehran still honors the interim nuclear deal it reached with the six world powers

© IRNA 2013