No change to Iran’s nuclear policy after Larijani: Ahmadinejad

By DPA

Tehran : There will be no changes to Iran’s nuclear policies following the resignation of chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday on state television.


Support TwoCircles

“There will be no changes and we will continue insisting that the nuclear dossier should be solely dealt with by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” Ahmadinejad told reporters after a cabinet session.

“Larijani himself wanted to resign and changes are natural in politics. Larijani is still my friend and Jalili, a renowned diplomat is now in charge of the National Security Council (also heading nuclear negotiations),” he added.

There had been speculation that following Larijani’s resignation last week’s and criticism of Ahmadinejad within local political circles, the course of nuclear policy would change with the appointment of the new chief nuclear negotiator, Saeid Jalili.

“Our stance is still the same and will not change as I have said before, Iran’s nuclear case is closed and we only accept the IAEA as the only relevant international body to deal with our dossier,” Ahmadinejad said.

“Any other body is considered by us as illegal,” he added, referring to the United Nations Security Council which is to deal with the case of Iran’s nuclear programme should talks between Jalili and European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana fail.

Ahmadinejad once again referred to the UN Security Council’s Resolution as “pieces of paper” saying that “increasing the number of these worthless papers” would have no impact on Iran’s firm decision to pursue nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment.

Talks between Iran and the EU resumed Tuesday in Rome and both Jalili and Solana said they were positive and constructive.

Iran and the IAEA agreed last August to remove all technical ambiguities regarding Iran’s nuclear projects and to use the relevant IAEA report – to be out in November – as a basis for political talks between Iran and Solana

The talks in Rome are therefore said to have just been a review of the progress made in the IAEA agreement, during which a date was set for the next round of talks.

SUPPORT TWOCIRCLES HELP SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND NON-PROFIT MEDIA. DONATE HERE