Envoy: New Round Of Iran-IAEA Talks On May 13-14

Vienna, April 28, IRNA – Iran Ambassador and permanent representative in International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the new round of talks between Iran and the agency will be held on May 13-14, 2012 in Vienna. In an exclusive interview with IRNA here on Friday afternoon, Ali Asghar Soltanieh said following talks with the agency about setting framework and modality for responding to some questions, it was agreed that the next round of talks be held in the venue of Iran permanent representative office here. He underlined that the decision proves once again that Tehran intends to cooperate with the agency and certain claims against Iran are baseless. Last year, Iran and the agency held several rounds of talks. In two rounds of talks between Iran and the agency in Tehran, three meetings were held in Vienna and a number of agreements were signed. Both sides in Vienna accepted that they should reach an agreement on modality first and then sign a contract to execute issues one by one. Upon modality of year 2007 with document number; INFCIRC/711, six issues were settled and the agency issued necessary approvals in this concern for Tehran. In a statement issued by Iran permanent representative office in Vienna, it was said that “ Following a high level political negotiation work plan number “ INFCIRC/711” in order to make clear remaining problems from the past, Tehran and the agency made agreement on August 27, 2007. As a result of Iran very active cooperation, the remaining six issues were settled in 2008 and the former director general of the agency reported that to Governing Council. Although the agency did not fulfill its obligation, such as delivering documents related to “alleged studies” to Iran, Tehran presented its assessment in a 117-page document. So work plan ended, but the agency did not declare it. And Iran again invited a team from IAEA on October 30, 2011 to pay a visit to Iran for settling problems and ending an endless process. In the first round of talks, held on January 29-31, 2012, Tehran and the agency team held an intensive negotiation about ways to settle problems and determine main issues and the two sides exchanged drafts about compiled approach and modality for next details. Deputy Director General of IAEA Herman Nackaerts after his return from his first 3-day visit to Iran said that they achieved an agreement on settling the remaining problems on nuclear issue. Iran’s representative office statement had an important section to which agreements with the agency were referred but it was ignored in Amano‘s report./end