To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 26 February 2007, Official Report, column 84W, on Iran, whether any changes to the flexibility about the modalities for opening negotiations were proposed by (a) Mr. Javier Solana and (b) Mr. Ali Larijani during their meetings of 25 and 26 April 2007; and if she will make a statement. (136490)

The UN Security Council has set out on behalf of the international community its requirements of Iran. These requirements are not negotiable. However, the UK, together with their partners in the “E3+3” (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United States and the High Representative of the European Union), remain willing to explore flexibly the modalities of how to begin discussions with Iran on the basis of the established position of “suspension for suspension”. This would involve Iran suspending its enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, as required by the UN Security Council, while the Security Council would suspend implementation of measures adopted under Security Council Resolutions 1737 and 1747.

In their meeting on 25 April, Dr. Solana explored what flexibility might be available in terms of the process leading up to negotiations, but Dr. Larijani was not able to respond.