TEHRAN, Oct 20: Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has resigned, officials announced on Saturday.

Government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said Larijani would be replaced by Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Jalili.

“Larijani had resigned several times and finally the president accepted his resignation,” state news agency IRNA quoted Elham as saying.

The resignation of Larijani, who was secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, took effect immediately.

However, he is to join his successor to participate in talks on Iran’s nuclear programme with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Rome on Tuesday, Elham said.

Elham offered no explanation for the resignation except to say that Larijani had “personal reasons” for stepping down.

His replacement Jalili, a youthful deputy foreign minister born in 1965, is seen by analysts as a close ally of President Ahmadinejad.

“The resignation of Mr Larijani has been accepted and Saeed Jalili will be replacing him,” Elham was quoted as saying, adding that the process to finalise the appointment was underway.

Political analyst Mohammad Sadegh al-Hosseini said the appointment was made to increase Ahmadinejad’s control over nuclear policy ahead of parliamentary elections on March 14 and a presidential poll in summer 2009.

“It is a step towards consolidating the camp of Ahmadinejad and shutting the door to any kind of differences,” he said.

A top Iranian official, who asked not to be named, added that Larijani had political ambitions of his own.

“Larijani wants to play a more significant political role and perhaps become a member of parliament.” The influential head of parliament’s research centre, Ahmad Tavakoli, said he regretted Larijani’s resignation: “The experience and positions held by Larijani are not comparable with the deputy foreign minister, who has little experience.” Larijani, who took on his post after Ahmadinejad’s election in 2005, has led two years of sensitive talks with EU officials over Iran’s nuclear programme.

He replaced the moderate negotiating team which had served under former president Mohammad Khatami and reversed the suspension of uranium enrichment that had been agreed with EU countries.

Larijani maintained the government’s line it would never back down in the nuclear standoff and Elham insisted there would be no change in strategy following his resignation.

The resignation came a day after Ahmadinejad flatly contradicted a statement by Larijani that Russian President Vladimir Putin had handed over a message on Iran’s nuclear programme during his landmark visit to Iran last week.

“The declaration over Putin last week had possibly played a role,” in the resignation, said an analyst close to Larijani who asked not to be named.

Despite several meetings during the past year, Larijani and Solana have failed to overcome the key sticking point in the dispute — Tehran’s refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment activities. The West believes that Iran’s nuclear programme is cover for a drive to develop an atomic bomb, but Tehran insists it only wants to generate electricity.—AFP