Israel nuclear commission confirms talks with Iran

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-22 20:46

JERUSALEM: Officials of Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) and Iran have held talks recently, a spokeswoman from the commission confirmed on Thursday.

Israeli media reported earlier in the day that an IAEC representative met with a senior Iranian official last month in Cairo to discuss nuclear-free issue in the Middle East.

"It is true," IAEC spokeswoman Yael Doron told Xinhua through telephone, however adding that there was no "face to face discussion."

She declined to give further details, other than that the talks were in a frame of various issues in the Middle East, not just focused on the Iranian nuclear issue.

Israel, the United States and some other countries have been accusing Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under the guise of civilian programs. Israel has so far refused to rule out the option of taking military action against Iran's nuclear sites.

While Iran insists that its nuclear plan is only for peaceful purposes, it also has suggested in the past that the Middle East should be free from all nuclear weapons, referring to Israel which is widely suspected to possess nuclear weapons.

Meirav Zafary-Odiz, director of policy and arms control for IAEC, and Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), met several times in Cairo at the end of September, with the representatives from other countries joining in, Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.

The newspaper referred it as "the first direct meeting between official representatives of the two states" since 1979.

Meanwhile, the Australian newspaper The Age reported that Australia has helped organizing the meeting.