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Iran's top nuclear negotiator says may be replaced

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 05:30 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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