Iran rules ballistics out of nuclear talks

Iran's ballistic missiles will never be the subject of the ongoing negotiations withthe six leading world powers over its nuclear program, Iranian Defense MinisterHossein Dehghan has said.The minister's comments on Wednesday came as Iran and the P5+1 group of sixleading world powers near the end of six months of negotiations towards a nuclearagreement.According to a statement released by the Iranian Defense Ministry, Dehghan saidthat Iran's missile stocks were an internal matter on which the Iranian governmentwould not accept any outside intervention, therefore ruling them out of talks withthe group, which comprises the five permanent members of the UN Security Council- the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom and France - plus Germany."Iranian government policy does not allow, and Iranian religious authorities forbid,the killing of people with nuclear weapons. Therefore, the government does not seekto have nuclear weapons," the statement read.A six-month deal on discussions between Iran and the P5+1 group is set to end inJune and the countries are due to prepare a draft accord by mid-May aimed atsigning a permanent nuclear deal within two months.- Economic threat In the first round of talks last November in Geneva, the sides reached a partialagreement, which raised hopes for a comprehensive accord being reached.The world powers aim to curb Iran's nuclear activities while it is seeking a releasefrom sanctions which threaten to cripple its economy.The EU suspended some economic sanctions against Iran following approval fromthe International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) on January 20 in Brussels.Under the Geneva deal, the P5+1 countries agreed to provide Iran with somesanctions relief in exchange for it agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclearactivities for a six-month period.