Iran's Larijani, EU's Solana to meet on nuclear standoff next Tuesday

Iran's Larijani, EU's Solana to meet on nuclear standoff next Tuesday

	Published : Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:41 By : Agencies Print this Story

TEHRAN (Thomson Financial) - Iran's lead nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet next Tuesday for new talks on Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, the ISNA news agency reported.

'The negotiations of Dr. Larijani and Javier Solana will be held next Tuesday,' Javad Vaidi, a deputy to Ali Larijani, was quoted as saying.

Vaidi said the meeting 'will probably be in Vienna or Rome'.

Solana must report to major world powers Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the United States before mid-November on whether Iran is willing to give up uranium enrichment in exchange for political and trade incentives.

Vaidi also said that talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will take place next week as part of their agreement to clarify the agency's technical questions about the Iranian nuclear drive.

'Next week, on Saturday or Sunday, Iranian and IAEA experts will hold negotiations about P1 and P2 centrifuges.'

The talks follow an agreement reached in August for Tehran to provide answers to outstanding questions over its nuclear programme, including plutonium experiments and uranium-enriching centrifuges.

Olli Heinonen, the IAEA's deputy director general for safeguards, and Vaidi had held talks last week on the centrifuges.

'In late October, I will talk about the issue of P1 and P2 centrifuges,' Vaidi added.

Besides Solana, the IAEA is also due to report to the UN Security Council on Iran's level of cooperation.

The UN has imposed two sets of sanctions against Iran for refusing to freeze uranium enrichment, a process that creates nuclear fuel but can also make the core of an atomic bomb.

The West, led by the United States, believes that Iran's nuclear programme is cover for a drive to develop an atomic bomb, but Tehran insists that it is for nuclear power for civilian purposes only.

The major powers, split over whether to impose further sanctions, have said they will await the reports before deciding what action to take.

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