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Iran denies Israeli claims of secret talks

Ali-Shirzadian

Tehran strongly rejects reported claims by an Israeli daily that the Iranian and Israeli delegations held secret talks during a September meeting of the International Committee on Nuclear Non-Proliferation in Cairo.

“This lie is a kind of psychological operation designed to affect the constant success of Iran’s dynamic diplomacy during the Geneva and Vienna meetings,” said Ali Shirzadian, the spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, on Thursday.

“The Islamic republic does not recognize the Zionist regime. It considers it to be a counterfeit and illegitimate,” he added.

Earlier on the same day, the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) claimed that some of its representatives had held several meetings with an Iranian official to discuss nuclear issues in the region.

The Israeli right-wing Haaretz daily, citing supposed comments by an IAEC spokeswoman, claimed that the officials discussed the chances of declaring the Middle East a nuclear-free zone during alleged meetings.

Shirzadian, however, described the idea as preposterous and reiterated that throughout the September talks in the Egyptian capital the Iranian delegation had spoken out against the Zionist regime’s nuclear arsenal, and described it as the reason behind the Middle East insecurity.

The Iranian delegation, he added, also emphasized that “the daily killing of the Palestinian women and children by the occupying regime is a danger to humanity.”

Israel is the Middle East’s sole nuclear-armed power with a stockpile that is widely believed to hold over 200 atomic warheads.

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