Iran Postpones Nuclear Talks With European Union
06 September 2006
A senior Iranian official says his government is postponing nuclear talks with the European Union that were expected to begin Wednesday.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, and the EU's foreign-policy chief, Javier Solana, had been expected to meet in Vienna today.
Ali Ashgar Soltaneih Tehran's representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency says the meeting was postponed because of "a procedural matter." There was no further explanation, but the Iranian envoy says both sides are working on a new date for the talks.
Earlier, in Washington, a State Department spokesman said the United States expects all U.N. Security Council members to abide by the decision they reached previously, that should be sanctioned for disregarding last week's deadline to stop uranium enrichment by 8/31.
The United States, Russia, France, Britain and China - the Security Council's permanent members - are expected to meet with German officials on Thursday in Berlin to discuss their next move.
Russia and China have expressed reservations about punitive actions against Iran, saying they would prefer to resolve the standoff through negotiations.
Iran says it is ready for negotiations, but will not halt uranium enrichment - a process the United States and its allies say is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies this.
In a speech in Washington Tuesday President Bush said the world's free nations will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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