IAEA, Iran see more talks ahead on nuclear issue
02 February, 2012
VIENNA: Senior UN nuclear inspectors plan another trip to Iran soon after holding what both sides described as "good" talks about suspicions that the Islamic Republic is seeking the means to develop atomic weapons.
The talks represented rare direct dialogue in the protracted international stand-off over Iran's nuclear activity. Tension has worsened in recent weeks with the West pursuing a punitive embargo on Iranian oil and Tehran threatening retaliation.
Led by the International Atomic Energy Agency's global head of inspections, the IAEA team returned on Wednesday from three days of talks in Iran to try to end three years of deadlock in efforts to resolve questions about Tehran's nuclear work. Tehran says its uranium enrichment programme is solely for peaceful electricity generation and has repeatedly dismissed allegations of weapons aims as baseless and forged.
The fact both sides said talks would resume hinted that the round just completed at least created some basis for progress. "We are committed to resolve all the outstanding issues and the Iranians said they are committed too. But of course there is still a lot of work to be done and so we have planned another trip in the very near future," Herman Nackaerts, IAEA deputy director general in charge of nuclear non-proliferation safeguards, told reporters after returning from Tehran.
Asked if he was satisfied with the talks, Nackaerts, who headed a six-member mission, said: "Yeah, we had a good trip." He described the talks as "intensive discussions" but declined to comment on whether his Iranian counterparts had engaged in substantial dialogue or to give any more details, saying he first needed to brief his boss. A Western diplomat based in Vienna, the IAEA's headquarters, said that meant the jury was still out on whether the mission accomplished anything concrete. "What we want to know the answer to is did Iran cooperate on substance here," the diplomat said.
Proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick described Nackaerts' statement after the trip about more meetings as a positive sign. "The IAEA would not be scheduling another trip unless they had an expectation of progress in clearing away at least some of the questions about suspicious past nuclear activity," Fitzpatrick, a director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said. In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi also said more talks would be needed but did not say when. "We had very good meetings and we planned to continue these negotiations the team had some questions about the claimed studies one step has been taken forward," he told the semi- official Fars news agency in Tehran on Wednesday.
By "studies", Salehi was alluding to intelligence reports indicating that Iran has covertly researched ways to design a nuclear weapon — Western allegations that were backed up by a detailed IAEA report in November. Salehi added: "We were ready to show them our nuclear facilities, but they didn't ask for it." Lower-level IAEA inspectors based in Iran have regular, if limited, access to Iran's declared nuclear installations.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, had already announced Iran's readiness to hold talks with major world powers and would issue a written invitation, Salehi added.
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