Iran holds nuclear talks with EU, cancels meeting with ElBaradei

Iran held high-level nuclear talks with the European Union on the occasion of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting that started here on Monday, while a meeting with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog chief was canceled.

Javad Vaedi, a deputy to Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, met earlier today with Robert Cooper, a top aide of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, which was intended to prepare for more talks between Larijani and Solana.

"Today's working session was good. I consider it kind of constructive ... (but) you should not expect kind of a huge miracle," Vaedi said.

"We made progress but one cannot expect miracles in this business," Cooper, together with Vaedi, told reporters at a press briefing following the meeting.

Larijani met with Solana in Madrid, Spain more than ten days ago, for talks that failed to break the deadlock over Tehran's nuclear program.

Although Larijani and Solana agreed to intensify their dialogue with another one face-to-face in a meeting in two weeks' time, the date has yet to be set.

An earlier news report said that Monday's talks broke off in failure due to Tehran's refusal to discuss substantial issues, citing western diplomats.

The latest talks between Iran and the EU were held when the United Nations' nuclear watchdog IAEA started a five-day meeting of its board of governors here to discuss Iran.

On March 24, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a new resolution, the second punitive one, with tougher sanctions to pressure Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.

However, an IAEA report two weeks ago said that Iran continued to resist the U.N. Security Council ban on enrichment and instead was expanding its activities.

The United States is using the IAEA meeting to gather support for a third round of sanctions against Iran, which Iran is trying to avoid.

Analysts said Monday's talks with the EU on the occasion of the IAEA board meeting was one of Iran's diplomatic efforts.

Meanwhile, Vaedi had also planned to meet IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, but the eye-catching event was later canceled.

The aborted meeting was termed as explanatory as Iran would use the chance to answer some questions about its current nuclear program, a move to show Tehran's willingness to cooperate.

But the meeting was abruptly canceled due to Iran's domestic reason, western diplomats said.

Source: Xinhua