E-Paper
Iran for resumption of nuclear talks: Mottaki
The Iranian chief diplomat said NAM colleagues had voiced solidarity with Tehran on the nuclear issue.
Iran is ready to resume unconditional negotiations on the standoff over its nuclear program, its Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki told diplomats in Havana, Non-Aligned Movement delegates have said.
"In response to the call by the NAM, the Islamic Republic of Iran has also expressed its readiness to resume the negotiations without any preconditions with the interested countries to clarify outstanding issues with the purpose of increasing confidence and transparency," delegates confirmed Mottaki said in a closed-door foreign ministers' meeting, in his speech obtained by the agency.
Mottaki also told his colleagues on Wednesday that Iran "has continued its cooperation with the agency (International Atomic Energy Agency) to facilitate the resolution of the outstanding issues related to its peaceful nuclear activities within the framework of the agency."
The Iranian chief diplomat said NAM colleagues had voiced solidarity with Tehran on the nuclear issue.
"NAM through this support has rejected the efforts by some to limit and restrict the inalienable right of states to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Mottaki added in his speech.
In Vienna, the United States and Europe earlier urged Iran to choose negotiations over UN sanctions, even as EU-Iran talks on Tehran's refusal to heed demands that it suspend uranium enrichment stalled.
A meeting planned for Thursday between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was postponed and only their aides will meet in Paris, Solana's spokeswoman said.
