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Iran said on Sunday that the US involvement in the nuclear talks between Iran and the European Union (EU) would complicate the issue.
"We believe that the US involvement in the negotiations would just make things more complicated," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told a weekly news briefing.
Asefi made the comments in response to a recent suggestion made by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei that Washington be invited to participate in the nuclear talks.
Asefi said the negotiations between Iran and the EU should not become a bargaining game, stressing that Iran was just engaged in nuclear talks to secure its right to get access to peaceful nuclear technology.
Iran and the EU agreed to resume nuclear negotiations later this month after the IAEA decision on Nov. 24 to postpone the referral of Iran's nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council in order to provide extra time for Iran and the EU to seek a peaceful solution to the issue.
The nuclear negotiations, which started after Iran suspended all activities related to uranium enrichment in November 2004, have been stranded since Tehran defiantly resumed uranium conversion activities in early August.
The IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, in late September urged Iran to re-suspend the conversion activities or to face a referral of its nuclear case, which was rejected by Iran.
The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, a charge categorically rejected by Tehran as politically motivated.
(Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2005)
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