Tehran  - The Iranian judiciary on Tuesday sentenced former Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Moussavian to a two-year suspended jail term for having allegedly harmed national security, Fars news agency reported

Moussavian was further banned for five years from any official posts within the Islamic Republic, Fars quoted an unnamed official as saying.

Moussavian, also a former ambassador to Germany, was arrested last May on charges of "connections to foreign elements and the transfer of information to them" but released from the notorious Evin prison in northern Tehran on bail.

During the second term of Mohammad Khatami's presidency from 2001 to 2005, Moussavian was the number two man in Iran's National Security Council - the main body in charge of nuclear negotiations - after chief negotiator Hassan Rowhani.

The Moussavian case is considered as part of an internal power struggle between the camp close to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the reformist wing close to the two ex-presidents Khatami and Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani. (dpa)