New changes at top Iranian security body

IRAN: Iran has made new changes at its Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), which looks after negotiations with the West in the nuclear crisis, the Mehr news agency reported on Monday.

Javad Vaeedi has been replaced as the council’s deputy head in charge of international affairs by Ali Bagheri, who was previously the foreign ministry’s director general for North and Central European affairs. Vaeedi meanwhile will become an advisor to the council’s head Saeed Jalili, a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the agency said.

No explanation was given for the changes.

The move comes after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday named Jalili as his personal representative on the council.

As head of the council, Jalili is the top nuclear negotiator in talks with the West aimed at ending the five-year-old crisis over the Iranian atomic programme.

Tehran is currently considering a package from world powers offering Iran technological incentives if it halts the sensitive process of uranium enrichment which the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons.

Tehran, Tuesday, AFP