President meets visiting Iranian foreign miniser, calls for dialogue, negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program

President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Monday urged dialogue and negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program and voiced opposition to any prospect of war conflict, speaking after a meeting with visiting Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

He called the prevailing situation a “confidence deficit”.

“Greece is in favor of negotiations, rejects any other solution, and will try to reconcile things in that direction in the framework of the European Union. We cannot ponder a new war. It would be a great disaster for the world, for Europe and especially for us, who are so close by,” Papoulias stressed.

Mottaki, in turn, noted the long-standing relations between the two countries, and of bilateral and trilateral initiatives that have been undertaken in the past, and stressed the need for corresponding initiatives to be assumed again today in the region.

The visiting official also conveyed greetings from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and from Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to Iran’s supreme spiritual leader, with whom Papoulias had worked in the past when the two men were serving as foreign ministers of their respective countries. As foreign ministers, Papoulias and Velayati had undertaken a joint initiative in 1994 for peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina.