Iran to make new proposals for EU nuclear talks within a month

London (Platts)--26Aug2005

Iran will present new proposals for nuclear talks with the European Union
within a month, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Friday after
talks in Vienna with the head of the UN's atomic energy watchdog.
     Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will need "about a month to
elaborate new proposals," AFP quoted Larijani as telling a news conference
after his meeting with Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, in the Austrian capital.
     Britain, France and Germany last week called off a planned Aug 31 meeting
with the Iranians after Iran resumed uranium conversion work at Isfahan.
     The EU troika insists that conversion, the precursor to enrichment,
violates last November's Paris agreement under which Iran suspended fuel cycle
work pending negotiations. The Iranians insist it does not. The US believes
Iran is working covertly to build nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran rebuts.
     Before leaving Tehran for Vienna Thursday, Larijani was quoted in various
Iranian media reports as questioning the role of Britain, France and Germany
as negotiators on the nuclear issues and suggesting that other countries
should be involved.
     "We consider the negotiations with the Europeans positive and still
believe they can be positive," Larijani said, quoted by AFP, after his meeting
with ElBaradei. However, these negotiations should not be "exclusive," he
said, adding that other countries could be brought into the talks.
     But he reiterated that Iran had no intention of suspending its uranium
conversion activities. Nor was Tehran concerned about the possibility of being
referred to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions. Such a
move, AFP quoted him as saying, would be a mistake given the "power that Iran
enjoys in the region."

For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at
http://nucweek.platts.com.

Please visit: www.platts.com

Their coverage of energy matters is extensive!!.