MOSCOW - The head of the UN atomic energy agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said Wednesday he was hopeful talks between the European Union and Tehran on the Iranian nuclear crisis would resume in the coming months.
"We have a hiccup right now," ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said at a forum on nuclear safety issues in Moscow. "I am optimistic that in the coming months we will see a resumption of these negotiations."
"We need to find a face-saving solution," ElBaradei continued.
EU talks with Tehran - spearheaded by the so-called EU-3 of Britain, France and Germany, as well as EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana - broke down in August after Tehran resumed uranium conversion activities.
The United States claims these activities are a cover for developing nuclear weapons.
Last month the IAEA threatened to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program, but not before a November IAEA meeting.
The European bloc has so far resisted calls for Iran to be referred to the UN, hoping to win pledges from Tehran on its nuclear plans, in exchange for trade and other benefits.
At Wednesday's forum in Moscow, organized by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US pressure group, ElBaradei said that Russia shared the same broad goals as other leading members of the international community as regards Iran's nuclear program.
Washington has voiced worries about Moscow's building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, suspecting that this could help Tehran develop an offensive nuclear capacity.
"I think everybody, Russia included, agrees that nobody wants to see Iran develop nuclear weapons. On the strategic goal there is consensus," ElBaradei said.
"Russia, like all other members, has been trying to see what is the best tactics to achieve that objective ... You have differences on the best tactics to be pursued, but that is democracy."
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