DHAKA: Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, will lead nuclear talks with world powers, a move that would see the experienced pragmatist succeed a conservative who had overseen a hardening of Tehran`s position.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Sunday, says The Jerusalem Post, there was no immediate confirmation of the report.

The report echoes a widespread expectation that the moderate Zarif will take over the sensitive role in line with an apparent desire by the country’s new centrist president, Hassan Rohani, to bring a more conciliatory approach to talks over Western powers’ fears that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons capability.

Since 2007, sporadic negotiations had been conducted by the hardline Saeed Jalili, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who was seen by Western interlocutors as an uncompromising ideologue.

BDST: 1844 HRS, SEPT 22, 2013
RoR/RK