Solana in Ankara to meet Iran's Larijani on nuclear issues

European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in the Turkish capital of Ankara Wednesday to meet Iran's top negotiator Ali Larijani on Iran' nuclear issue.

Solana, EU high representative for the common foreign and security policy, told reporters at the airport upon his arrival that he was grateful to the Turkish government for its hospitality, saying he had a positive approach in general.

Solana is to meet Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, later in the day to discuss Iran's disputed nuclear program.

Larijani-Solana meeting is considered important since it will be the first meeting between the parties since the UN Security Council decided to impose new sanctions on Iran last month.

Meanwhile, Larijani, who arrived in Ankara earlier in the day, stated at Ankara's Esenboga airport that he arrived here in order to discuss fresh ideas that might be brought up during the talks with Solana.

Larijani recalled that he had previously met with Solana, however, "some unacceptable and irrational conditions came up afterwards."

Larijani also underscored that Iran acted in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Larijani during a luncheon before Larijani holds talks with Solana at Ankara's Swissotel Wednesday afternoon, who tries to persuade Iran to stop uranium enrichment and return to the negotiating table.

On Thursday morning, Larijani and Solana will also have a meeting with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who is the ruling party's candidate for the next presidency.

On Monday, Solana said in Luxembourg that he could not guarantee his forthcoming talks with Iran to be a success, but he would like to try again to break the impasse over the country's nuclear program.

Foreign ministers from all 27 EU members agreed on Monday in Luxembourg to introduce harsher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programs compared with a UN Security Council resolution.

The two sides held several rounds of talks last year but failed to find a solution to solve the crisis. Their last face-to-face meeting was on Feb. 11.

The United States has accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian nuclear programs.

However, Iran has denied the accusation and shown no sign of yielding in the nuclear stand-off, saying its uranium enrichment has reached an industrial level and announcing its wishes to install over 50,000 uranium enriching centrifuges at a plant in Natanz.

Source: Xinhua