Iran’s former nuclear envoy to aid successor

New York Times: Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, who resigned Saturday, will accompany his replacement to nuclear talks in Rome on Tuesday with Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday The New York Times

By NAZILA FATHI
Published: October 22, 2007

TEHRAN, Oct. 21 — Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, who resigned Saturday, will accompany his replacement to nuclear talks in Rome on Tuesday with Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

The former chief negotiator, Ali Larijani, who had headed Iran’s negotiating team since 2005, will accompany Saeed Jalili, a deputy foreign minister who was appointed as his successor, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sunday, the Iranian Students News Agency reported.

Mr. Hosseini said Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all matters of state, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had insisted that Mr. Larijani attend the meeting, the news agency said.

Mr. Larijani, who resigned from his position as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, was responsible for leading negotiations with Europe over Iran’s nuclear program. Analysts viewed the resignation as an indication of the growing rift between Mr. Larijani, viewed in the West as a moderate, and Mr. Ahmadinejad, who has been less interested in negotiating over nuclear issues.

However, he remains a member of the council as the supreme leader’s representative.

Mr. Hosseini said it was still not clear weather Mr. Larijani would accompany Mr. Jalili to future meetings as well.

But he added that Mr. Jalili’s appointment did not signal a change in Iran’s nuclear policy. “We have always stressed that the nuclear case is a national issue and our officials will pursue it with sensitivity,” he was quoted by ISNA as saying.

In the meantime, a group of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Tehran on Friday to continue their talks on uranium enrichment work, the news agency said. The delegation, headed by Olli Heinonen, the agency’s deputy director, held discussions with Iran’s deputy nuclear negotiator, Javad Vaeedi, two weeks ago. The atomic agency hopes to get answers to its questions about Iranian centrifuges, ISNA reported.