TEHRAN, Nov 6: Iran formally requested fresh talks with the European Union on its controversial nuclear programme on Sunday but was swiftly rebuffed for so long as it rejects a renewed freeze on fuel cycle work.
Iranian news agencies reported that the country’s top nuclear official, Ali Larijani, had sent a letter to foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany insisting on the necessity of negotiations.
Talks between Iran and the so-called EU-3 broke off in August when Iran resumed uranium conversion activities in defiance of international calls to maintain a suspension.
In the letter, Larijani said that Iran would welcome negotiations that are constructive and based on logic, the first such approach since he took over the nuclear file from pragmatic cleric Hassan Rowhani after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in June.
But the letter also insisted on Iran’s need to exercise its legitimate rights and to see its national interests guaranteed, the news agencies said, apparently backing up Iran’s announcement that it would soon embark on fresh nuclear fuel work and was seeking investors for uranium enrichment activities.
Officials said Iran would be converting a fresh batch of uranium ore — the precursor step to enrichment.
“No, definitely not,” the diplomat from one of the three EU countries that had been negotiating with Iran told AFP in Vienna when asked whether there was any chance of the bloc agreeing to new talks.
Iranian media said the government had given the go-ahead last Wednesday for the country’s atomic energy agency to look for foreign and domestic investors for uranium enrichment, even though such work remains suspended.
Officials said Iran would also be converting new consignments of uranium ore at its plant outside the central city of Isfahan, after resuming this crucial part of the fuel cycle in August following a suspension.—AFP
