LONDON - Arab League chief Amr Mussa said Tuesday he was "optimistic" about the current negotiations between Western powers and Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, but said Tehran must be given time.
"I am optimistic as to the dialogue that is going on," Mussa told reporters in London.
Lighting up a cigar in defiance of Britain's ban on smoking indoors in public places, Mussa said it was important to "encourage the current negotiations... and give time for the proposals on the table to get proper answers".
He was speaking as Iranian state television said Tehran would accept the broad framework of a United Nations-brokered deal to export its low-enriched uranium to another country to refine, but with "very important changes".
World powers fear Iran intends to enrich its low-enriched uranium to even higher levels and use it to make atomic weapons, something Tehran denies.
"We need a political process on Iran, not any military action," Mussa said, adding: "We are of the view that any military action would be ill-advised and would lead to chaos and perhaps catastrophe in the region."
Mussa was in London to attend the Arab-British Economic Forum and hold talks with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband as well as British lawmakers.
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