Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani to begin official visit to Turkey

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani will begin an official visit to Turkey late on Wednesday, Turkish diplomatic sources told AFP.

Larijani will meet Thursday with Turkish parliament speaker Cemil Çiçek, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and possibly with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül, they said.

The talks with Larijani, a former nuclear negotiator, are expected to focus on Iran’s disputed nuclear progamme as the international standoff escalates between Tehran and world powers.

The United States has ratcheted up sanctions on Iran over its atomic programme, which the West believes masks a drive to develop atomic weapons. Iran insists the programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes. The European Union is expected to announce further sanctions of its own, including an oil embargo, at the end of this month. 

Turkey has repeatedly said it is only bound by sanctions decided by the UN Security Council. Turkey’s Davutoglu was in Tehran last week, when his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi said he would like to see a resumption of the nuclear talks with world powers last held in Istanbul a year ago.

January/11/2012
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News