AFP: Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has arrived for talks with key US ally Pakistan amid threats that the row over Tehran’s atomic programme could be referred to the UN Security Council. AFP
ISLAMABAD – Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has arrived for talks with key US ally Pakistan amid threats that the row over Tehran’s atomic programme could be referred to the UN Security Council.
“He is here to explain and inform us the Iranian position and the developments in Iran’s nuclear talks with the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency,” a foreign office official said.
Larijani was due to hold talks with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and also call on President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his day-long stay on Wednesday, the official said, requesting anonymity.
Larijani had been due Monday but the visit was rescheduled at Iran’s request, foreign ministry spokesman Naeem Khan said on Tuesday.
The visit follows a recent tough report issued by IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei, that showed Iran failing to meet demands for cessation of all nuclear fuel activities.
It said that despite two and a half years of IAEA investigations, Iran had failed to resolve critical questions about work with both uranium and plutonium — the two raw materials for making atom bombs.
The spokesman said Iranian officials wished to inform Pakistan about their discussions with the IAEA and with Britain, France and Germany — the so-called EU-3 with whom Iran agreed last November to suspend uranium enrichment-related work.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan’s name has figured in the UN nuclear watchdog’s investigation of Iran’s atomic fuel reactor program, amid US allegations that Tehran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons.
Pakistan in May sent parts from used nuclear centrifuges to the IAEA to allow the agency to compare microscopic traces of uranium on them with those found on devices in Iran.
Last month the IAEA confirmed the particles found at a key nuclear site in Iran were from Pakistani centrifuges, which were passed to Tehran by disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
