EU's Solana open to meeting with Iran's Larijani
Source: Reuters
(Adds EU diplomat, context, paragraphs 6, 17-20) By David Brunnstrom BRUSSELS, Feb 8 (Reuters) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Thursday he was open to meeting Iran's chief nuclear negotiator at a security conference in Munich. Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani said on Wednesday he planned "negotiations" with Western officials at the Feb. 9-11 conference. European Union diplomats suggested any contacts would be exploratory, not full-fledged negotiations. It would be the first such face-to-face contacts since the United Nations in December imposed sanctions on Iran over its atomic energy programme, which the West fears may be a disguised nuclear bomb project but which Iran says is wholly peaceful. Tehran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment led to the breakdown in October of talks between Iran and world powers conducted by Solana. The United States, China, Russia, France, Germany and Britain insist Iran stop enriching uranium first in exchange for talks to implement trade incentives on offer. But Washington's EU allies reject U.S. talk of a last resort military strike on Iran should diplomacy fail and have been more amenable to dialogue with Iran to avert confrontation. Solana told Reuters that a meeting would depend on the timing of his and Larijani's visits to Munich. "If he is there at the same time I am there, then maybe there is the possibility of a short meeting. For the moment I have not agreed on anything as I don't know what time I'll be there and what time he will be there," he said. An EU diplomat said the two men did plan to meet. He said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier might have a formal meeting with Larijani in Munich. Germany is the holder of the presidency of the 27-nation European Union. FRESH DIALOGUE 'NOT UNREALISTIC' "The idea of trying to re-establish dialogue or at least offering it ... isn't unrealistic," another EU diplomat told Reuters in Vienna where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which monitors Iranian nuclear sites, is based. Larijani, quoted by Iran's official IRNA news agency, did not say whom he would meet or what he would discuss. He has previously said he will not meet U.S. officials, who insist they will talk only once Iran stops enriching uranium. Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates are also expected to attend the meeting. The U.S. envoy to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, praised the EU for swiftly implementing the U.N. resolution, which bans trade in nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology. But he repeated U.S. warnings that Europeans could and should do more, including ending credits subsidising exports to Iran and taking other measures to discourage investment. "(The Americans) are aware of the technical and bureaucratic hurdles that have to be overcome in the EU -- the EU moves at a different pace," a European diplomat said of Schulte's remarks. Diplomats say EU states are hesitant to cut off trade with Iran. Germany is the EU's biggest exporter to Iran, while Italy is the EU's biggest purchaser of Iranian energy wealth. Schulte also suggested Washington would push for a second, harsher U.N. sanctions resolution if Iran remained defiant. "There hasn't been a discussion yet of moving to measures outside the current resolution. But people are concluding that unless there is a real U-turn (by) the Tehran government, another resolution and how that process happens is something that will have to be discussed," the European diplomat said. (additional reporting by Sophie Walker in London, Louis Charbonneau in Berlin and Mark Heinrich in Vienna)
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