The 15th Summit of Iran’s Assembly of Experts has kicked off in the capital, Tehran, with the country’s senior officials in attendance.
The two-day event opened in Tehran on Tuesday with a speech by Chairman of the Iranian Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, both members of the Assembly, are among the participants of the meeting.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi, a senior nuclear negotiator, as well as the country’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Tayyeb-Nia are also scheduled to address the meeting.
During his opening speech, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani pointed to Tehran’s nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 group - Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany - and expressed confidence that the administration and its nuclear negotiators will “definitely protect the people’s rights.”
“As they have declared, Iranian officials and the [nuclear] negotiating team are in the position of safeguarding the Iranian nation’s principles and rights, and they will not cross the red lines,” added Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani.
Iran and the six other states are in talks to hammer out a long-term deal aimed at fully resolving the decade-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear energy program.
The Assembly of Experts is a body of Islamic Jurisprudence scholars who are directly elected to office in a national poll. It holds meetings twice a year to review major national issues and every other year to appoint a new chairman.
The body is tasked with monitoring the performance of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and the institutions working directly under the supervision of the Leader. It also shoulders the responsibility of electing the Leader when the need arises.
Source/Fuente: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/04/353176/experts-assembly-summit-o...