Solana Stresses Importance Of Talks With Tehran

Tehran, Feb 7, IRNA – European countries should continue talks with Iran, former European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana said on Monday. Solana made the remarks in an interview with Austrian daily Der Standard. “It’s for a long time that we are negotiating with the Iranians; negotiation channels should remain open,” the former official added. Solana noted that Tel-Aviv is really worried about Iran’s nuclear activities. “Israel officials know well that any attack against Iran has unpredictable consequences and can worsen the situation,” he said. A team of IAEA inspectors had a three day official visit to Tehran recently. Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh in an interview with IRNA had said that Tehran hoped the three-day trip would 'resolve any ambiguity and show (our) transparency and cooperation with the agency.' 'This trip is aimed at neutralizing enemy plots ... and baseless allegations, and proving the peaceful nature of our nuclear activities,' Soltanieh added. Director General of IAEA Yukiya Amano, in a statement by referring to dispatching a team from the agency to Tehran late January, underlined that he is committed to constructive cooperation with Iran. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted that Tehran is not dodging negotiations and was ready to sit down with world powers — Britain China, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany for talks. Previous talks held a year ago in Istanbul ended without progress. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed the West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing those sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path./end