Iran announced on Sunday that crunch talks with the European Union to break the deadlock over its disputed nuclear programme would go ahead as planned, hours after saying they had been postponed.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana had been due to meet on Thursday, possibly in Spain, for their second encounter in just over a month.
However Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini unexpectedly told reporters at his morning press briefing the meeting had been postponed to allow both sides more time.
"For the Larijani-Solana meeting, no date or venue has been set. With the agreement of both sides it has been postponed," he said. However amid confusion and concern over why the key meeting had been so suddenly shelved, the foreign ministry later issued a statement from Hosseini's office saying that the talks would, as planned, be held on Thursday.
It also indicated that the two men had been in touch recently to confirm the date but did not say if this was after the announcement of the postponement at 0700 GMT Sunday.
"In the light of the latest agreement between Mr Larijani and Mr Solana, the date for the negotiations is Thursday, May 31," said the statement. "The venue will be decided through their contacts," it added. There was no explanation for the morning's announcement.
The meetings between Larijani and Solana are central to diplomatic efforts to resolve the stand-off, which has already seen Iran slapped with two sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
After missing the latest UN Security Council deadline to suspend the process, Western powers are now pressing for Iran to face further penalties for its defiance.
Even when the pair meet, it remains unclear whether the two sides will be able to achieve any breakthrough, with the EU wanting Iran to freeze uranium enrichment and Tehran refusing to even consider such a move.
Iran's right to enrichment is the main obstacle toward resolving the stand-off as the sensitive process can be used both to make nuclear fuel and, in highly extended form, to produce the fissile core of an atomic bomb.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge vehemently denied by Tehran, which says it just wants to produce energy for a growing population whose fossil fuels will eventually run out.
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