IAEA Director General Arrives In Tehran

Tehran, Nov 11, IRNA – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yokia Amano arrived in Tehran in early hours of Monday morning to participate in new round of Iran’s talks with the UN nuclear watchdog. Amano’s visit of Iran is based on an invitation extended to him by the Iranian Deputy President and Head of Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi. Iran and the IAEA will hold their meeting today, Monday, in Tehran aimed at achieving tangible progress in Iran’s cooperation with the agency. Salehi had earlier expressed hope that during Amano’s November 11th visit of Tehran the two sides would managed to reach a sum up about the process, and if possible, also issue a joint communiqué. Deputy FM and senior nuclear negotiator Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, too, had last Monday in a visit of Vienna in a meeting with the director general of the agency put Iran’s new proposal for resolving the remainder of issues to end to former standstill in Iran-agency talks. According to this plan, Iran has announced its readiness for replying to the entire questions and ambiguities of the IAEA in a short period of time, although in accordance with the nuclear NPT, doing so is not obligatory for Iran. The Iranian top negotiator with the agency is Iran’s Ambassador and permanent representative to the IAEA Reza Najafi. The head of the UN atomic watchdog said Sunday he hoped the agency would still reach a deal with Tehran despite the lack of progress in talks between Iran and world powers in Geneva. International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Yukiya Amano said as he left for talks in Tehran that the negotiations between Iran and six world powers that ended in Geneva Sunday without a deal were ˈdifferent, independent and separate from those with the UN body. ˈIran presented a new proposal (to the IAEA) last month that includes practical measures to strengthen cooperation and dialogue, and we hope to build on it,ˈ Amano told reporters at Vienna airport. ˈI hope the coming meeting will produce concrete results,ˈ he said. ˈWe are coming to a very important point.ˈ The IAEA conducts regular inspections of Iranˈs nuclear facilities but for two years has been fruitlessly pressing Tehran to answer allegations, which are typically based on futile allegations brought up by the racist Zionist regime and the MKO terror organization. Iranˈs parallel talks with the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, known as the P5+1, are focused more on Tehranˈs current activities, in particular uranium enrichment. Three grueling days of P5+1 talks ended with no agreement but the two sides were both please with their positive atmosphere and will meet again on November 20, when they hope they will draft a joint text. The two diplomatic ˈtracksˈ are closely related, however, since world powers want Iran to answer the IAEAˈs questions in order to ease fears about its nuclear program. The six countries also want Tehran, which denies it is seeking to pursue military objectives, to submit to more intrusive inspections by the watchdog as part of a wider accord. Iranˈs new envoy to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, said on Saturday he was more optimistic about the chances of signing a deal during Amanoˈs trip, his first since May 2012. ˈWe foresee that the text will be finalized on Monday./end