TEHRAN, 7 November 2005 — Iran formally requested fresh talks with the European Union on its controversial nuclear program yesterday 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”.
In the letter, Larijani said that Iran would “welcome negotiations that are constructive and based on logic.” 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. “No, definitely not,” the diplomat from one of the three EU countries that had been negotiating with Iran said in Vienna when asked whether there was any chance of new talks.
Meanwhile, Iran confirmed yesterday it had allowed UN inspectors to visit a military complex.
