Iran’s top nuclear negotiator says may be replaced

By Paul Hughes

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s top nuclear negotiator has said
he may be removed by hardline president-elect Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and warned that a new negotiating team may reverse
Iran’s decision to freeze uranium enrichment-related work.

European diplomats have expressed concerns that pragmatic
cleric Hassan Rohani may be replaced by a more hardline
official when reformist President Mohammad Khatami’s term ends
on Aug. 4, signaling a hardening of Iran’s nuclear policy
stance.

Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday he would take “new measures”
regarding Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the European Union.

Rohani 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.

“The new president naturally has the right to appoint
whoever he chooses,” Rohani, who has led Iran’s nuclear talks
with the European Union since 2003, said in an interview
published in the liberal Sharq daily on Wednesday.

“I don’t think anyone is against negotiations (with the
European Union), but there might be differences in our approach
about suspension (of nuclear work). It is possible that this
different viewpoint may be implemented,” he added.

Rohani and his negotiating team of senior diplomats and
security officials have frequently been criticized in Iran’s
hardline media for agreeing to suspend uranium enrichment and
allow intrusive U.N. inspections of nuclear facilities.

On Tuesday Rohani himself warned Iran would resume some
uranium processing work — a move which could see Iran’s case
referred to the U.N. Security Council — if the EU did not
recognize its right to make its own nuclear power reactor fuel.

TOUGH BUT REASONABLE

Iran, which insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to
peaceful purposes, will hold crucial talks in August on an EU
proposal about the long-term future of its atomic program.

The EU wants Iran to scrap nuclear fuel work, such as
uranium enrichment, which could be used to make bomb-grade
material, in return for economic and other incentives.

Iran says it will never give up nuclear fuel cycle work.

EU diplomats say they have found Rohani and his team to be
tough but reasonable adversaries who have skillfully managed to
prevent Iran’s case being escalated to the Security Council as
Washington wants.

Ahmadinejad, who won a landslide election victory on June
24, said on Tuesday he had new ideas on how to tackle the
nuclear issue.

“Definitely the new government will adopt new measures
which will be announced later,” he said after a meeting on
Tuesday with parliamentarians to discuss his future cabinet’s
composition. He did not elaborate.

Local media have said that former state broadcasting chief
Ali Larijani, a hard-liner close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, would replace Rohani and take charge of the
nuclear negotiations with the EU.

But the semi-official Mehr news agency, citing an informed
source, said on Tuesday Larijani would be made Iran’s new
foreign minister, replacing Kamal Kharrazi.

Ahmadinejad’s office has refused to discuss any speculation
about future cabinet posts.