MUNICH, Germany (AP) _ Iran’s top nuclear negotiator on Friday canceled plans to attend a security conference in Germany where he was expected to meet Western officials for the first time since limited U.N. sanctions were imposed in December.
Ali Larijani had said earlier this week that “some negotiations with Western parties” were planned on the sidelines of the Munich Conference on Security Policy, where participants will include Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
But Larijani informed organizers Friday he would not be attending due to an illness, conference organizer Horst Teltschik said.
“The official explanation is that he got sick,” Teltschik told The Associated Press, adding that he does not expect anybody else from Iran to attend in his stead. “It’s not so easy to replace Larijani; he has a key role in Iran.”
An official at the International Atomic Energy Agency also said Friday that Larijani had canceled his trip to Europe. Larijani had been expected to meet with the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency during a stopover Friday in Vienna. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not the agency’s authorized spokesman.
There was no immediate comment from Tehran.
