French FM calls for dialogue with Iran

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius underlined the need for holding talks between Iran and France on different issues, including Syria and Tehran's nuclear program. “Iran is a great and important country and our assessment from the recent presidential election (in Iran) is that a great change has taken place in the country based on the Iranian nation's will, and this decision has been taken by the nation,” the French foreign minister said in a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Paris Ali Ahani. Fabius pointed to abundance of potentials for Iran-France mutual cooperation, and said that his country welcomes direct talks with Iran on different issues, including removal of concerns pertaining to Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. The Iranian ambassador, for his part, reiterated that the Islamic Republic pursues a peaceful use of the nuclear technology under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but it has never had a military nuclear program on its agenda. Ahani underlined that reaching an understanding in this regard is possible through dialogue and in an atmosphere free from pressures and sanctions. Washington and its western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path. The Islamic Republic says that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.