United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Iran Saturday on a two-day visit to hold talks with senior Iranian officials. Annan, who is on a week-long diplomatic tour of the Middle East, was to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani, Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
The sides are to discuss post-war developments in Lebanon and implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war last month as well as Iran's nuclear case.
Meanwhile, EU High Representative Javier Solana dismissed reports that a new ultimatum was being set for Iran about re-opening negotiations over its peaceful nuclear program. "We are going to start in the coming days and I hope it will be very short. We don't need many meetings," Solana said Saturday after previously confirming that he is due to meet Iran's top negotiator Ali Larijani next week.
But 'there is no deadline', he told reporters, according to EU Business news feeds.
Earlier, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel was quoted by a news agency saying that the EU was giving 'Solana two weeks for his clarification talks'.
