“Negotiations are not made just for the sake of making negotiations, but for reaching an aim and the ultimate aim for Iran is having its own nuclear fuel cycle,” Iran’s newly-appointed chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said after his return from Vienna.

He said that to reach this aim, Iran is willing to respect the regulations of the IAEA, but not to give in to long-term negotiations without any perspective.

Larijani criticised the EU trio for having come up with only one real proposal after almost two years. The proposal, that Iran should not have its own nuclear fuel cycle, is “simply unacceptable”, he said.

“Negotiations are welcome, either with Europeans or non-Europeans, but all these countries should only act as a catalyst for swiftly settling the nuclear dispute within the IAEA regulations,” Larijani said.

He mentioned China, Russia and South Africa as possible alternatives to the EU trio Britain, France and Germany which have held nuclear negotiations with Iran since October 2003.

In his talks in Vienna with IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, it was made clear that the United Nations nuclear watchdog should clearly differentiate between technical and legal aspects on the one hand and political aspects on the other, he said.

Larijani further disclosed outlines of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plan to settle the dispute which again contains maintenance of Iran’s right to have nuclear activities and rejection of demands to stop the uranium conversion programme in the Isfahan plant in central Iran.

“These principles should be included in any further negotiation process,” Larijani said, while making clear that the policies of the new nuclear negotiation team under his command would be different from those of his moderate predecessor Hassan Rowhani.