Larijani to be Iran's top nuclear negotiator- IRNA

Reuters (Alertnet):

08 Aug 2005 10:08:10 GMT

Source: Reuters

TEHRAN, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Ali Larijani, a conservative with close ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will shortly replace Hassan Rohani as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

Quoting Ali Aghamohammadi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), IRNA said new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had decided the former state broadcasting chief would take Rohani's job as secretary of the SNSC. "We expect President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to issue the decree of Ali Larijani's assignment soon, and he will take over the responsibility for Iran's nuclear dossier," Aqamohammadi told IRNA.

Rohani, considered a moderate conservative by analysts, has led Iran's nuclear negotiations with the European Union since 2003.

European diplomats had expressed concerns that pragmatic cleric Rohani may be replaced by a more hardline official when Ahmadinejad took office this month, signalling a hardening of Iran's nuclear policy stance.

Rohani last month said a new negotiating team may reverse Iran's decision last November to freeze uranium enrichment-related work to allay fears in the West that it wants to make atomic arms.

U.N. inspectors were preparing on Monday to oversee the resumption of uranium conversion at a plant near the central Iranian city of Isfahan, a move the EU has warned will probably lead to Iran's case being sent to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.