TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman categorically dismissed US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent statements who said that Iran had been on the verge of making an atomic bomb “as a big lie”. Afkham’s remarks came in response to Wednesday’s claims by Kerry who alleged that “Iran had been close to obtaining an atomic bomb and had been enriching uranium to the level of 20 percent which is just below weapons-grade.” “The claim that Iran has been on the verge of obtaining a nuclear bomb is a big lie,” Afkham said on Thursday night. She noted that the US officials under the pressure from “Zionist lobbies occasionally make baseless and exaggerated remarks on Iran’s nuclear program”. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has never sought to obtain a nuclear bomb and will never do so based on Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei’s fatwa and its defense doctrine”. Reacting to Kerry’s remarks that sanctions “brought people to the table”, Afkham stressed, “It was Iran’s diplomacy that proved the inefficiency of the sanctions and compelled the US to come to the negotiating table.” She further noted that US officials’ confession that the sanctions against Iran have proved inefficient has been one of the diplomatic achievements of the nuclear talks for Tehran. Kerry claimed that the recent agreement between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) will prevent “Iran from obtaining the fissile material for a bomb.” “Without this agreement, Iran could continue expanding its stockpile of enriched uranium, which is now more than 12,000 kilograms – enough, if further enriched, for multiple bombs,” the US secretary of state said. “The fact is that it wasn’t either sanctions or threats that actually stopped and finally stopped the expansion of Iran’s nuclear activities,” Kerry added. On February 22, 2012, Ayatollah Khamenei said the Islamic Republic considers the pursuit and possession of nuclear weapons “a grave sin” from every logical, religious and theoretical standpoint. On Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Leader blasted the US statesmen for their contradictory remarks after the nuclear agreement with Tehran, and called on Iranian officials show more sensitivity and give proper response to their comments. “In the nuclear talks with are negotiating with the 5+1, but the US administration is, in fact, the main party; but the US officials speak very badly and a decision needs to be taken about the manner they speak,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with the head and members of Iran’s Assembly of Experts in Tehran. “Don’t say that the Americans are uttering these words to convince their internal rivals; of course, I believe that the internal disputes in the US are real and they have differences and the reason for such a difference is clear to us, but what is officially said needs a response and if no response is given to them, the other side’s remarks will be entrenched,” he added. Ayatollah Khamenei also referred to the US officials’ remarks on the suspension of sanctions, and said Tehran has always underlined the necessity for the termination and not suspension of embargoes. “If the sanctions are not due to be removed, then there will be no deal either. Hence, there needs to be a decision to be taken in this regard,” he added. He said Iran has made some concessions during the negotiations with the world powers in order to see a removal of the sanctions in return, otherwise we wouldn’t have attended the negotiations and Iran could have increased its 19,000 centrifuges to 60,000 centrifuges, continue 20% uranium enrichment and accelerate its research and development activities. “If the sanctions are due to be suspended, our actions should also be arranged in the form of suspension and not essential measures on the ground,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “Of course, the other side says that removal of certain sanctions is not within the US administration’s authority; in response we say that those sanctions that fall under the US administration and the European governments’ authority should be terminated,” he added. Ayatollah Khamenei also blasted the US officials’ remarks that JCPOA has created some opportunities for the Americans both inside and outside Iran and in the region, and said, “The Iranian officials shouldn’t allow the US to make use of any opportunity inside the country and they should also try in order not to allow the Americans to find any such opportunity outside Iran because the closer they come to such opportunities, the worse the nations’ sufferings, humiliation and backwardness will grow.” He reiterated the complete ban on any negotiation between the Iranian officials and the Americans on other issues, and said there won’t be any other talks with the White House, except for the nuclear issue, because “the US positions are fully against the stances of the Islamic Republic.” Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran is not like some other underdeveloped countries that the US officials speak to as they wish, and stressed that Iran is a powerful nation and has already proved its capabilities in action. He referred to the US officials’ remarks that they expect Iran to pick up a different course of action, and said they mean ignoring the Islamic values, non-commitment to the Islamic laws and Iran’s compliance with the US policies in the region which include full annihilation of the resistance forces and full hegemony over Syria and Iraq, and they should know that “such a thing will never happen”. Elaborating on the process of the JCPOA’s approval in Iran after the nuclear agreement was reached with the world powers in Vienna on July 14, Ayatollah Khamenei underlined that the JCPOA should be precisely scrutinised by experts, and stressed that the parliament should certainly play a role in this regard. Yet, he said he reserves judgment on the agreement and would not advise “the parliament on how to study the JCPOA or on approving or disapproving it. These are the people’s representatives who should decide about it.” Iran and the world powers reached a final agreement in Vienna on July 14 to end a 13-year-old nuclear standoff. A week later, the UNSC unanimously endorsed a draft resolution turning into international law the JCPOA reached between Iran and the 5+1 group of countries (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Now the US Congress and the Iranian parliament have less than 50 days to review the deal to approve or reject its practice.