Iran, praised by the UN atomic watchdog chief for deciding to cooperate with world powers over its nuclear program, said Monday it will head with a “positive” approach into the next round of talks later this month. Foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi reiterated at a news conference that the Iranian nuclear program was peaceful in purpose and dismissed Western demands that Tehran offer guarantees to this effect. Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States are to meet again by the end of October for more discussions on Tehran's nuclear program after talks last week in Geneva, the first in 15 months. Ghashghavi said he was not in a position to make a “judgment” about how the late October round of talks would proceed, but he said that Tehran “was going forward with this positive approach.” “We think it is constructive because the fact is that the negotiations are going forward,” he said. “Its continuation shows that there is material to talk about in the future. We see no reason to be pessimistic.” On Mohamed ElBaradei's weekend visit to Tehran, Ghashghavi said the outgoing UN atomic chief had “praised Iran's cooperation” over the nuclear file. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head flew in to the Iranian capital on Saturday to work out the procedures for UN inspections of Iran's newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom. After a series of meetings with Iranian officials, ElBaradei told reporters on Sunday that UN experts would visit the site on October 25.
