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Iranian Nuclear Envoy Steps Down Before Key Meeting

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By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, The Associated Press

Published: October 21, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's top nuclear negotiator resigned Saturday in a move seen as a victory for the hard-line president that could push the country into a more defiant position in its standoff with the West.
Ali Larijani was viewed as more moderate than President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and the two often clashed over how to negotiate with the world on the nuclear issue.

His resignation and replacement by the little-known deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs, Saeed Jalili, puts the nuclear portfolio firmly in the president's hands just days before a key meeting with European negotiators.

It was not clear whether Larijani left his post under pressure, but his departure was interpreted by many here as giving Ahmadinejad a free hand in dictating his views to the less-experienced Jalili.

The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons and have demanded it halt uranium enrichment, a key step in the production of atomic weapons. Oil-rich Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes, including generating electricity.

Iranian political analyst Jahanbakhsh Izadi said that the intense rivalry between the president and Larijani, who answered directly to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was behind the resignation.

Larijani believed a political solution to the standoff was possible and worked closely with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. His efforts were often hindered by Ahmadinejad's fiery rhetoric, said Ismail Gerami Moghaddam, a reformist lawmaker.

The move also suggests that the nation's ultimate arbiter, Khamenei, has tilted toward Ahmedinejad and away from former protege Larijani.

Iran has periodically raised alarms over the possibility of war, particularly when the West brings up talk of sanctions over Tehran's rejection of U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment.
Government spokesman Gholam Hussein Elham said Iran's policies would not change and the meeting between the nuclear negotiator and Solana, scheduled for Tuesday in Rome, would still take place.

John Bolton, the Bush administration's former point man on the Iran nuclear issue, said Larijani's resignation was 'a clear victory for Ahmadinejad' and shows that 'the leadership is determined to continue with nuclear program,' including uranium enrichment.

Bolton said the conflict between Larijani and Ahmadinejad is 'part of the larger struggle for power after Khamenei dies.'

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