Senior aide says Iran rejects conditions in nuclear talks

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Oct. 22 – Iran’s former intelligence chief and a top aide of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear negotiators could only re-commence talks aimed at ending the country’s nuclear standoff if there were no pre-conditions by the other parties. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 22 – Iran’s former intelligence chief and a top aide of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear negotiators could only re-commence talks aimed at ending the country’s nuclear standoff if there were no pre-conditions by the other parties.

Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian, who is currently a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, told the country’s state news agency that any decision made by Iranian negotiators would have to reflect “national interests”. The Assembly of Experts, an exclusively clerical body, designates the country’s Supreme Leader.

Fallahian, who headed the notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) during the presidency of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was a key Khamenei ally and has been implicated in a number of high-profile dissident murders and assassinations.

He is a wanted by INTERPOL after a German court issued an international warrant for his arrest for his role in the assassination of Iranian dissidents in Berlin in 1992.

In the interview, Fallahian blasted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for issuing “unwarranted and unjust reports” on Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.