Iran's top nuclear negotiator sought to soothe international unease over his country’s nuclear programme during a visit to Pakistan on Wednesday, days after a UN watchdog confirmed that Tehran had resumed uranium conversion. Ali Larijani, appointed last month by Iran’s new President, has been seeking support from non-Western nations for Iran’s plan to pursue what it says is a programme designed for power generation and not atomic weapons. ‘‘Having stated this principle that we are determined to have nuclear technology. we are fully prepared to have any international negotiations’’ Larijani said after meeting Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a fresh initiative that will ‘‘facilitate work to assure the international community of the exclusively peaceful (nature) of our activities,’’ Larijani told reporters, without expanding on what that initiative contained. After a courtesy call on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Larijani met for four hours with Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri. Iran is facing diplomatic pressure after last Friday’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report confirmed that Tehran had resumed uranium conversion, one of several activities previously suspended under a deal with three European Union nations—France, Britain and Germany. Larijani said Iran was continuing to discuss its nuclear programme with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, and hold negotiations with other countries. But a senior EU diplomat told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday that the negotiating process, begun with Iran in Paris last November, appeared to be at an end. He said the next step was for the IAEA to report Iran’s nuclear programme to the UN Security Council. The United States and the Europeans are trying to reach a broad consensus for reporting the Iranian case to the Security Council, but Russian and Chinese support are in doubt. Pakistan, the only Islamic country with nuclear weapons, is opposed to any use of force against its western neighbour, and Larijani voiced his appreciation of Islamabad’s stance. ‘‘We want a peaceful resolution of the issue, and we are willing to play a role between Iran and the international community, if we are asked,’’ Kasuri told journalists. US grants Ahmadinejad visa WASHINGTON: The Bush administration has granted Iran’s new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a visa to attend the UN summit in New York, overriding objections raised by the Department of Homeland Security which had sought to deny Ahmadinejad a visa. At the State Department’s request, Homeland Security waived legal objections to allow Ahmadinejad, as a head of state, to attend the gathering of world leaders PTI
