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Press TV talks with Nader Bagherzadeh, professor of the University of California, regarding Iran’s nuclear energy program and the country’s official stance.

- Iran's leader, the country's president and its foreign minister have said it over and over again that Tehran is opposed to nuclear weapons. So why do you think pressures continue and there is even talk of new US sanctions on the country’s oil industry?

- I think they have to take them seriously. This is a team that has shown really nice way of dealing with politics.

They are not focusing on incendiary comments and I think their interview with Mr. Rouhani really showed this sincerity, and in my opinion, those forces that are trying to disregard or detract relation between Iran and US should stop doing that and listen to what these leaders are saying.

There is a very good opportunity next week in the United Nations to go forward beyond this group of talks basically reciprocity from the US side in showing goodwill. I think there has been some goodwill so far but the talk of additional sanctions definitely will derail this process and it will weaken Mr. Rouhani back at home.

So I think it is a very delicate discussion and I am hoping that Mr. Zarif is going to be super busy talking to officials that are responsible for handling this case and move the file forward in a positive way. This is the time that everybody has been waiting for.

- So do you expect Iran's nuclear case to be closed any time soon as a result of the interaction between Iran and the Western party, or do you think it will still be a long procedure?

- I think it would be a long procedure. I do not think it will happen very quickly. There are many many issues on the table.

There are some relatively easier solutions on the table regarding Almaty-2 proposal which was supposed to be dealing with 20-percent enrichment and reciprocally equal in weight sanctions. Maybe that is the easier part.

The toughest part would be the amount of 5 percent enrichment and what is acceptable for Iran to keep. I think that is going to be in conflict with NPT rights of Iran and there has to be a way of resolving this, maybe with more openness and putting more safeguard in place, maybe the Western countries will agree to that and the amount of enrichment.

So that would be the toughest point. I do not see that that will happen any time soon but the first part regarding the 20 percent hopefully, it will be resolved very quickly with the goodwill of Dr. Rouhani and Zarif and the corresponding officials in the United States and other Western countries. So let’s hope that that process will go forward at some level.