EU's Solana to meet Iran on atom programme Tuesday
18 Oct 2007 13:50:46 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds context on sanctions) BRUSSELS, Oct 18 (Reuters) - EU foreign policy head Javier Solana will meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator in Rome next week for talks aimed at drawing Tehran back into negotiations over its controversial nuclear programme. An EU official said Solana, who has a mandate from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- as well as Germany, would meet Ali Larijani on Tuesday. Major powers have agreed to delay new sanctions against Iran until November to see whether Iran's deal with U.N. inspectors to clear up suspicions about its intentions yields results and to await a report by Solana. He last met Larijani in June, but his previous efforts to draw Tehran into negotiations on a package of inducements for it to suspend its uranium enrichment programme have failed so far to yield a breakthrough. On Monday, the European Union instructed its experts to study further possible sanctions on Iran unless it halts activities the West suspects are aimed at making atomic bombs. Iran denies it wants nuclear bombs, insisting its programme is aimed purely at generating electricity. Solana's talks with Larijani will follow a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tehran this week, which was watched closely given Moscow's possible leverage in the nuclear row. Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, has been resisting a push by the United States and its European Union allies for a third round of tougher sanctions. Putin said on Thursday that direct dialogue was a better way of easing the crisis over Iran's atomic programme than the threat of military force or sanctions. Putin has said he has seen no evidence that Tehran's programme has military aims and has made clear to Washington that Russia would not accept military action against Iran.
