Iran: Jalili-Burns Meeting Held at US Request

"The meeting of the US delegation with the Iranian delegation was held at the request of the Americans," SNSC Undersecretary for Foreign Policy Affairs Ali Baqeri told Iran's state-run TV on Saturday.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of landmark talks in Geneva between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) over a wide set of proposals presented last month by Tehran.

Following two sessions of talks on Thursday, the representatives of Iran and the six world powers agreed to meet again before the end of October. A meeting at the level of deputy heads is also planned before the two sides meet by the end of this month.

Elaborating on the contents of sideline talks between the Iranian and American delegations, Baqeri said that the meeting was held merely within the framework of Iran's proposed package.

He also said that the two sides discussed the manner and trend for continuing the path to attain the goals specified at the Iran-world powers meeting.

Given that Iran is now a nuclear state, it will develop the industry in the geographical and software arenas and will establish new installations within the boundaries of the IAEA rules and regulations, Baqeri underscored.

Iran announced last week that it had started construction of a new uranium enrichment plant to produce fuel for its nuclear reactors. In line with its safeguard cooperation with the IAEA, Iran informed the UN nuclear watchdog on 21 September that it is constructing a second plant for uranium enrichment.

IAEA Spokesman Marc Vidricaire said that in the letter to the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran had underlined that the enrichment level in the plant would only be up to 5 percent which is consistent with the enrichment level needed for fueling nuclear reactors.

Meantime, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi in a statement on Friday announced construction of another nuclear fuel enrichment plant in the country.