@@ Chief of Iran's nuclear program reinstated @@

Associated Press (AP)
August 29, 2005


Chief of Iran's Nuclear Program Reinstated


By Nasser Karimi


http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20050829/capt.ny19508292036.iran_nuclear__ny195.jpg?
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, answers a question
from the media during a news conference in Tehran in this Feb. 22, 2003 file photo.
Iran's president reinstated Gholamreza Aghazadeh as head of Iran's nuclear program on
Monday August 29, 2005, a clear sign to the Europeans and Washington not to expect a
change of course under the country's new leadership. State radio announced President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to reappoint the 58-year-old Aghazadeh, who had run
the country's nuclear program since 1997.


Tehran - The head of Iran's nuclear program was reinstated Monday in a sign that the
country's new leadership will maintain a hard line toward the West.
State radio announced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to reappoint
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who had run the country's nuclear program since 1997.

Aghazadeh had backed Ahmadinejad's rival, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, in the
June national election that swept the former Tehran mayor into office.

Iran renewed its uranium reprocessing activities at a plant in central city of
Isfahan earlier this month after rejecting a European proposal to give up its uranium
enrichment program in return for economic incentives. Aghazadeh called the offer a
"joke".

Britain, France, and Germany held talks with Iran on behalf of the 25-member European
Union. Aghazadeh took a strong line, insisting Europe would only show flexibility if
Iran resisted the temptation to accept Western demands.

After saying earlier this month it was ready for further negotiations with the
Europeans, Tehran announced on Sunday that it now wanted talks with the U.N.'s
international nuclear watchdog agency, rejecting what it called European demands for
"conditional negotiations".

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