Tehran - Tehran on Sunday deplored the final statement by the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) against Iran's nuclear programmes. "It is deplorable that the G8 paid no attention to the legal aspects of Iran's nuclear programmes such as International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports and our constant cooperation with the IAEA," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said.
"The G8 statement therefore lacks any legal or internationally acknowledged basis," the spokesman added in his weekly press briefing.
The G8 had warned Iran that harsher sanctions would be adopted if the Islamic state did not halt uranium enrichment in line with United Nations Security Council resolutions.
"There will be no enrichment suspension in whatever form," the spokesman reiterated Iran's position.
"But we will continue diplomatic channels for finding a settlement which would maintain Iran's rights as well as remove Western concern (over military misuse of atomic projects)," Hosseini added.
The spokesman said that Javad Vaeidi, the deputy of Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, would meet on Monday with a deputy of European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana for preparing the next round of the Iran-EU talks.
Hosseini did not disclose the venue but it is expected that the talks would either be in Vienna or Brussels.
Hosseini played down the initiative by Russian President Vladimir Putin to share with the US the use of a radar station in Azerbaijan to ensure better protection against a possible Iranian missile threat.
"Russia has said that an Iranian missile threat did not exist and experts believe that this (deployment of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic) is more aimed at confronting against Russian and Chinese missiles," the spokesman said.
Tehran had earlier described as the "joke of the year" the US missile shield project for safeguarding Europe against Iranian missiles. It said Iranian missiles could not reach Europe and that it would be absurd for Tehran to target its most important political and trade partners.
