Tehran, Sept 2, IRNA - Iranian Foreign Ministry on Thursday rejected as 'big lie, baseless and exaggerated' a claim by US Secretary of State John Kerry who alleged Tehran was on the verge of access to nuclear bomb.

'Under pressure of the Zionist lobby, the US officials have the habit of making baseless and exaggerated comments about Iran's nuclear program every now and then,' Spokeswoman Maizieh Afkham said in reaction to Kerry's speech in University of Philadelphia.
'It is a big lie to say that Iran was on the verge of acquiring a nulcear bomb,' she said in a statement.
She stressed that based on the religious decree of Iran's Supreme Leader and the country's defense doctrine, Tehran had never intended to acquire nuclear weapons and it will not do so in future.
'It was the diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran which proved inefficiency of sanctions and forced the US to sit at the negotiatons table,' she added.
The admission by US officials that even the severest sanctions failed to birng Iran to its knees was a diplomatic achievement for the Islamic Republic, said the spokeswoman.

By IRNA