Iran rejects bilateral meeting with U.S. at nuclear talks

HAARETZ
22.01.11

Aide to Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili says request for meeting made by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.


Iran has rejected a request to hold a bilateral meeting with the United States during ongoing talks in Istanbul with six world powers over its nuclear program, an Iranian official said on Saturday.



Abolfazl Zohrevand, an aide to Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili, said the request had been made by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has led talks for the big powers --the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.



"There is no need to hold such talks if it is not about the nuclear meeting in Istanbul," Zohrevand told Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam television news channel. Since the fall of the U.S. backed shah in 1979, any contacts between the Islamic Republic and the United States have usually taken place behind the scenes, and were rarely confirmed by the Iranian side.



On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesman said following the first day of talks with Iran and world powers in Istanbul that they were willing to engage Iran but they remained realistic.



Philip Crowley said the U.S. had three main concerns regarding Iran: their nuclear program, their suspected state sponsor of terrorism, and their interference in the Middle East peace process.



"Iran remains, arguably, the leading international state sponsor of terrorism. Iran is undermining the international community's efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East. So we're in Istanbul engaged with Iran to try to see if we can't resolve the nuclear file. But we're not putting all of our eggs in one basket," Crowley said.