“The 5+1 group must recognize our country’s nuclear rights and take measures to prove they have stopped [their] enmity against our nation,” Ramin Mehmanparast said in his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
He reiterated that the Islamic Republic will use its nuclear capabilities for peaceful purposes and the development of the country.
Pointing to the recent round of the talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) in Kazakhstan, the Iranian official said the outcome of the talks depends on the actions of the group.
Iran and the P5+1 wrapped up their latest round of negotiations on April 6 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Tehran and the P5+1 have held several rounds of talks mainly over Iran’s nuclear energy program. The previous round of the talks took place in Almaty on February 26-27.
Commenting on the recent attack on the residence of Iran’s charge d'affaires to Egypt Mojtaba Amani, Mehmanparast said, “Certain political currents are not happy with the close relations between Iran and Egypt, but they are few and their opposition does not indicate the will and the intention of the Egyptian government and nation.”
He added that unity between Iran and Egypt benefits the region while any kind of instability and insecurity serves the interests of the Zionist regime.
On April 5, a crowd of extremist Salafists attacked the residence of Amani in a suburb of the capital, Cairo, in protest at the warming relations between the two countries.
The crowd staged the protest in front of Amani’s residence and tried to scale the walls and break into the building, but was blocked by the police.
Iran severed its diplomatic ties with Egypt after the 1979 Islamic Revolution because Egypt signed the Camp David Accords with the Zionist regime and offered asylum to Iran's deposed monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Bilateral relations, however, have been on the mend following the 2011 Egyptian revolution that resulted in the ouster of the country’s dictator, Hosni Mubarak.
In August 2012, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi visited Iran to attend a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). It was the first visit of an Egyptian president to Iran in more than three decades.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also visited Egypt in February to attend the 12th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as the first Iranian head of state to visit Egypt in 34 years.