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British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, joined by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, will meet with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani next Tuesday in Brussels, diplomatic source said Wednesday.
The meeting, aiming at saving the negotiation process between the European Union and Iran over Teheran's nuclear program, will follow another preparatory meeting also in Brussels.
The meeting was described by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi as possibly the "last round of negotiations" between the European troika and the Islamic republic, while Teheran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and it will never give up its rights on nuclear energy.
Iran froze its enrichment activities on Nov. 22, 2004 in exchange for EU's promised economic and technological incentives after the two sides reached a fragile agreement in Paris.
However, during the consequent talks, the EU turned down Tehran's proposal of keeping restricted enrichment activities while providing other guarantees of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, which angered Iran.
Last week Britain, France and Germany warned Iran that breaking the deal would lead to the result that the UN Security Council has to discuss the matter after Tehran announced it would resume uranium conversion work.
Several top-level Iranian officials have said this week that they held out little hope of reaching an agreement with the EU-3, saying the Europeans were hostage to the hardline US position.
The United States has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, but Iran rejected the charge as politically motivated.
(Xinhua News Agency May 19,2005))
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