Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- Tehran rejected media reports that some Iranian and US officials had held secret talks in recent months.
It is possible that some Iranian officials have greeted US officials in some conferences and meetings but it’s not called negotiations, Iranian Intelligence Minster Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said on Sunday, ruling out official talks between the two sides.
Negotiations need some certain requirements and those requirements had not been met in Bush era, press tv quoted the minister as saying.
Ejeie’s remarks came as some media reports in recent days claimed that top Barack Obama advisers and Iranian officials have been negotiating over the past year.
Nuclear non-proliferation experts had several “very, very high-level” contacts in the last few months with Iranian leaders, said Jeffrey Boutwell, executive director for the US branch of the Pugwash group, an international organization of scientists which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
Former defense secretary William Perry, who served in Obama’s election campaign, participated in some of these meetings focused on “a wide range of issues that separate Iran from the West: not only their nuclear program but the Middle East peace process, Persian Gulf issues,” Boutwell told AFP.
The Pugwash official declined to name the other participants, except to say they had considerable clout.