Monday, 19 June 2006LONDON, June 19 (IranMania) - United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan will visit Iran next month for talks expected to cover the row over Iran's nuclear program, AFP reported.
Abdullah, who will also go to Yemen in July, told the daily Al-Khaleej that his agenda in Tehran would feature "the Iranian nuclear file and the issue of the three Emirati islands" controlled by Iran.
Abdullah said earlier this month that the UAE and fellow Persian Gulf Arab states feared a potential "radioactive leak from an Iranian nuclear power plant, which could cause an enormous ecological catastrophe by polluting the waters of the Persian Gulf."
Tehran dismissed the concerns, saying it had given the leaders of the region "every assurance over the security of the Bushehr plant", Iran's first nuclear power station which is being built with Russian help at the port city on the Persian Gulf.
Washington and its Western allies believe the Iranian nuclear program is a cover for an attempt to build a nuclear weapon.
Iran insists it is a peaceful project, arguing that it only wants to enrich uranium to make civilian reactor fuel and not material for a nuclear weapon.
The UAE is Iran's largest trading partner in the Persian Gulf, but the two countries have a long-standing dispute over the islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa.
The islands, seized by Tehran after British forces left the Persian Gulf in 1971, are claimed by Abu Dhabi.
Monday, June 19, 2006 - T®2005 IranMania.com
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Monday, 19 June 2006
Iran
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