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Iran draws up "new road plan" for ties with EU

Iran Materials 17 September 2010 12:33 (UTC +04:00)
Iran has drawn up a "new road plan" for its future diplomatic course with the European Union.
Iran draws up "new road plan" for ties with EU

Iran has drawn up a "new road plan" for its future diplomatic course with the European Union, Iran's ISNA news agency reported Friday.

"We currently need a revision and new assessment of our relations with the EU and to make a precise, updated and pragmatic picture of the latest developments," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in a meeting late Thursday with Iranian diplomats posted in EU countries, reported DPA.

Relations with the EU deteriorated after last year's Iranian presidential election because of allegations of fraud. Most EU leaders declined to congratulate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for winning re-election.

The EU also joined the US initiative to impose new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programmes and also decided to implement separate sanctions.

"The EU has adopted an illogical approach in some of its policies, such as toward the legitimate and indisputable rights of nations," Mottaki said, referring to Iran's right to pursue civilian nuclear technology as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The official news agency IRNA reported that Iranian diplomats also met with Ahmadinejad and evaluated future ties with the EU.

"While we welcome dialogue with the EU, we will never tolerate any pressure and dominating approach from the EU side," Ahmadinejad told the diplomats.

The president predicted that EU sanctions against Iran would fail and mainly damage the economies of the EU states.

The UN and some EU states have ordered economic sanctions against Iran for its uranium-enrichment drive and suspicions that it is secretly pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

One of Ahmadinejad's top advisers said last month that nuclear talks with the EU would be a "waste of time" and that Iran should focus its diplomatic efforts on the real world powers.

"We have realized that holding nuclear talks with the EU is futile as the Europeans have nothing to say (in world politics)," the president's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, said.

Tehran insisted that the main players in the nuclear dispute are the United States, Russia and China.

Ahmadinejad's preference is to have direct talks with US President Barack Obama.

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