By RIA Novosti
Tehran : Iran’s foreign minister called Friday on the six parties involved in talks on his country’s controversial nuclear programme to back Tehran’s cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Foreign ministers from Germany and the five permanent UN Security Council members – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – are set to hold talks on the issue later Friday in New York.
“All parties should support [IAEA Director General] Mohamed ElBaradei and the initiatives of the agency. It is important to give him an opportunity to complete his mission, otherwise constructive cooperation between Iran and the IAEA will be hampered,” Manouchehr Mottaki told Iran’s Arab-language news channel Alalam.
Mottaki also expressed his hope that political pressure on Iran would not lead to any party taking “illogical measures” towards the Islamic Republic.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved earlier this week a bill toughening sanctions against Iran, and banning the White House from any new nuclear deals with Russia, or other countries that engage in nuclear cooperation with Iran.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a session of the UN General Assembly Thursday that new sanctions could undermine the IAEA’s efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.
Western countries suspect Iran of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons programme, but the Islamic Republic insists that its nuclear programme has purely civilian goals.Iran has defied three consecutive UN resolutions against its nuclear programme since last year. However, Tehran recently intensified cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.