President Hassan Rouhani, architect of Iran's diplomatic opening to world powers, said on Sunday it had "red lines" and would not bow to threats in an apparent bid to keep hardliners on side as Tehran edges toward a deal on its nuclear programme.
He was speaking to the Iranian parliament, a bastion of conservatives, a day after the Islamic Republic and the six powers narrowed differences at talks in Geneva and decided to resume them on November 20 to try to defuse a decade-old stand-off and fears of a drift towards a wider Middle East war.
The sides seemed on the verge of a breakthrough - before cracks materialised among U.S. and European allies as France declined to endorse the proposal under discussion, believing it did not adequately neutralise the risk of an Iranian atom bomb.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told France Inter radio that Paris desired a nuclear settlement with Iran but could not accept a weak deal.
Diplomats said the main stumbling blocks included the status of Iran's Arak heavy-water reactor of potential use in making bomb-grade plutonium, the fate of Iran's stockpile of higher-enriched uranium - both acute issues for France - and the extent of relief from trade sanctions demanded by Tehran.
Rouhani told the Iranian parliament that his negotiators had told their big power interlocutors in Geneva, "We will not answer to any threat, sanction, humiliation or discrimination."
Source: Reuters
