DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - E.U./IRAN: THE EUROPEAN UNION, IRAN, SANCTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS...

Ahmadinejad calls on EU to speak for itself in talks on Iran's nuclear program

MADRID, Spain: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the European Union to speak for itself in negotiations, due to resume this week, over Iran's nuclear program and distance itself from the United States' position.

Ahmadinejad was interviewed by Spain's state television TVE on Monday from the gardens of his presidential palace in Tehran.

"If the EU wants to have a role internationally, it needs to act independently," the Iranian president said. "If it wants to translate the words of the United States, for that we already have the United States.

"We don't need a European Union that translates the words of the United States to us," he said in Farsi through a translator.

The United States, the EU and the United Nations Security Council have demanded that Iran stop enriching uranium, a process that can be used in the production of energy or weapons.

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EU's Solana, Iran's Larijani to go ahead with nuclear meeting on Wednesday

LUXEMBOURG (Thomson Financial) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that he will meet with Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Turkey on Wednesday about Iran's atomic energy programme as planned, even though the Iranian government has declined to freeze uranium enrichment ahead of the talks.

Solana declined to comment when asked what could be expected from the meeting.

"I will be meeting Larijani on Wednesday in Turkey," Solana told reporters, adding that the talks would be held in Ankara.

Yesterday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that "halting uranium enrichment is definitely deleted from the literature of Iran's nuclear activities."

"I will not talk about that," said Solana. "I expect to have a resumption of the talks that we had some time ago and see if we can move toward negotiations."

The UN Security Council has already imposed two sets of sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt its atomic activities and has threatened to take more punitive action if Tehran's defiance continues.

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EU approves Iran sanctions going beyond UN

European Union foreign ministers approved a regulation on Monday implementing United Nations sanctions against Iran after it refused to halt uranium enrichments, officials said.

The sanctions are targeted against individuals and organisations involved in Tehran’s disputed nuclear and missile programmes, which the West suspects are aimed at making an atomic bomb. The EU list, which was not immediately made public, goes beyond persons identified in UN resolutions.




Pertinent Links:

1) Ahmadinejad calls on EU to speak for itself in talks on Iran's nuclear program

2) EU's Solana, Iran's Larijani to go ahead with nuclear meeting on Wednesday

3) EU approves Iran sanctions going beyond UN