Solana said he was ‘surprised to hear that Larijani … has decided at the last minute to postpone his trip to Brussels as previously agreed with him to take place today.’
There was speculation in Brussels that Larijani had postponed his visit because Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, president- elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Solana said he was ‘surprised to hear that Larijani … has decided at the last minute to postpone his trip to Brussels as previously agreed with him to take place today.’
‘I had made clear to the Iranians and Dr Larijani that we want to proceed rapidly to examine together the ideas I put to him early last month,’ said Solana.
‘I have just spoken to Dr. Larijani on the phone and we agreed that we will meet tomorrow in Brussels and that we will continue our discussions on July 11,’ the EU chief diplomat added.
There was speculation in Brussels that Larijani had postponed his visit because Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, president- elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
A commission spokeswoman voiced ‘disappointment at Iran’s slowness in coming forward with a response to a very good package’ of incentives for Tehran in exchange for a suspension of uranium enrichment.
The proposals put forward by Solana followed consultations with six key nations – Britain, France, Germany, the United States, China and Russia – involved in nuclear talks with Tehran.
EU diplomats have said they hope Larijani will respond to the proposals in his talks with Solana.
Larijani’s trip comes almost a month after the EU’s chief diplomat travelled to Tehran with an offer to transfer European civilian nuclear technology to Iran in return for suspending uranium enrichment.
EU diplomats said Larijani and Solana had often had telephone contacts in the past four weeks, but this will be the first face-to- face meeting in a month.
Iran has said repeatedly in past days that there is no deadline for its response to the EU proposals, but indicated that it could be ready to reply in the Persian month of Mordad, which starts July 23.
The issue of Iran’s nuclear activities will be one of the chief topics at the July 15-17 G8 summit in St Petersburg.
The US and the EU fear that Iran is building nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran firmly denies.
The European offer is believed to include a range of incentives for Iran, but also a stark warning that continued deadlock could mean that the issue will be taken to the United Nations Security Council for discussions on possible sanctions.