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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Iran's nuclear negotiator resigns | Iran's nuclear negotiator resigns |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has resigned, a government spokesman has said. | Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has resigned, a government spokesman has said. |
| The spokesman, Gholam Hossein Elham, said Mr Larijani had repeatedly offered his resignation and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had finally accepted it. | The spokesman, Gholam Hossein Elham, said Mr Larijani had repeatedly offered his resignation and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had finally accepted it. |
| Mr Larijani has been Iran's point man in negotiations with Western countries that suspect Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons. | Mr Larijani has been Iran's point man in negotiations with Western countries that suspect Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons. |
| Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only. | Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only. |
| Mr Elham said a deputy foreign minister, Saeed Jalili, would replace Mr Larijani in time for a meeting on Tuesday with the European Union's foreign policy head Javier Solana. | |
| Russian proposals? | |
| The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Tehran, says Mr Larijani has had differences with President Ahmadinejad over how to proceed with negotiations over the country's nuclear programme. | |
| Mr Larijani has favoured further negotiations with the West over Iran's uranium enrichment programme, as opposed to the president's more hard-line approach, our correspondent says. | Mr Larijani has favoured further negotiations with the West over Iran's uranium enrichment programme, as opposed to the president's more hard-line approach, our correspondent says. |
| The resignation comes just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran and expressed qualified support for Iran's right to a peaceful nuclear programme. | |
| Some Iranian media reported that Mr Putin had offered new compromise proposals over the stand-off with some Western countries. | |
| Media close to President Ahmadinejad, however, have denied that the Russian president made new proposals. | |
| The resignation is a sign, says our correspondent, that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has thrown his weight behind President Ahmadinejad and his hard-line approach on the nuclear issue. |