Iran urges West to remove sanctions: president

The West has no other choice but to lift the "cruel" sanctions against the Islamic republic, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said here on Monday.

"They have no other way since all other ways are wrong; they have tried these ways before and if they want to retry them, they will lose more," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Press TV.

Also, the P5+1 group, including Britain, France, the United States, Russia, China plus Germany, should consider the removal of anti-Iran sanctions through interaction with Tehran, he said as the Iranian nuclear negotiating team left Tehran for Geneva on Monday for a new round of talks following the extension of nuclear deadline last month.

The Iranian president reiterated what he called the "peaceful" nature of Tehran's nuclear activities, saying the Islamic republic is holding "logical and calculated" negotiations with the world.

Iran and the world powers agreed on Nov. 24 to extend the nuclear talks for another seven months until June 30, 2015, after they failed to reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement last month before a previous deadline. Enditem