AFP: Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Thursday he plans to meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana within days over Tehran’s nuclear dispute with the international community, state-television reported. TEHRAN, Sept 7, 2006 (AFP) – Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Thursday he plans to meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana within days over Tehran’s nuclear dispute with the international community, state-television reported.
“In the next few days I will meet with Mr Solana to discuss the ambiguities between the two sides regarding the (big powers’) proposed package (for an Iranian halt to uranium enrichment) and Iran’s response,” Larijani said.
He was in Spain on Thursday for talks with Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and was also expected to briefly meet Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Iranian state radio said that after his Spanish visit, Larijani would go on to Italy and Vienna where he planned to meet with Solana. But Larijani’s aides are keeping tight-lipped over his European visits.
An EU official in Brussels, meanwhile, said that Solana, who was in Denmark on Thursday, “does not foresee at this stage” a meeting in Madrid with Larijani.
The United States and others accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons with sensitive uranium enrichment work that Tehran says is for peaceful energy purposes only.
Spanish news agency Europa Press reported that Moratinos was expected to press Larijani to respond positively to an offer of economic incentives from world powers in exchange for Tehran’s suspension of uranium enrichment.
Iran refused to suspend enrichment despite a August 31 deadline set by the UN Security Council, citing its right to develop nuclear energy, and now faces possible sanctions.
