Iran and the European Union agreed on Tuesday to a date and time for nuclear talks in Geneva next week, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted in a speech that Iran would not give “one iota” in the discussions, The New York Times reports.

The meeting between Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, and Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, would be the first high-level negotiations in more than a year and comes amid revelations, in leaked diplomatic communications, of widespread concern among Iran’s Arab neighbors about its nuclear program. The agreement on when to hold the meeting also came a day after the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in northern Iran on Tuesday, Mr. Ahmadinejad took a hard stance ahead of the talks. Iran had always been willing to talk “under the conditions of justice and respect,” he said, but added that “the people of Iran will not back down one iota” on demands to curb the nation’s nuclear program, which Iran claims is directed only at nonmilitary purposes.

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