WAR.WIRE
Berlin says talks on Iran's nuclear programme must continue
BERLIN (AFP) Jun 25, 2005
Germany expects talks on Iran's nuclear programme to continue with Tehran following the election of hardline conservative Mahmood Ahmadinejad as the country's president, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Saturday.

Berlin "expects the discussions between Iran, France, Britain, Germany and the EU's high representative for foreign policy, Javier Solana, to continue with the new president on the basis of the Paris agreement," Fischer said in an article to appear in Sunday's Bild am Sonntag.

Fischer also criticised "the exclusion of numerous candidates" before the election and "serious faults in the electoral process."

Ahmadinejad, the mayor of Tehran, soundly beat former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, viewed as a relative moderate, in Friday's run-off election.