Rouhani: Iran will push for nuclear accord

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 23, 2014.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 23, 2014.

Published Jan 23, 2014

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Davos, Switzerland - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country won’t impede progress toward a final agreement with world powers over the nation’s nuclear program.

Iran’s will to reach a comprehensive accord is “present and strong,” the president said today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Hurdles may arise if other parties show a “lack of serious will” to secure a deal, he said.

Rouhani, the first Iranian leader in a decade to visit the Swiss ski resort for the forum, is looking for investment to boost an economy that shrank more than 5 percent in the last fiscal year through March under the weight of international sanctions imposed to punish the Islamic Republic for its nuclear work.

Rouhani’s Davos speech follows the implementation this week of an interim deal between his nation and six world powers that curbs Iran’s atomic program in exchange for about $7 billion in sanctions relief.

The accord, struck in Geneva November 24 with the US, the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany, marks the first breakthrough in a decade-long standoff. - Bloomberg News

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