Progress was made at Iran-IAEA talks: IAEA director general

TEHRAN,Dec.24(MNA) – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano said that progress was made during the most recent meeting between the agency and Iran, which was held in Tehran on December 13. Amano made the remarks during an interview with the Times of India published on Saturday, which had been conducted on the sidelines of the Fukushima Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety held in Fukushima Prefecture from December 15 to 17. “IAEA wants to solve the issue through diplomatic means, and we remain committed to dialogue,” Amano stated. “We have just finished the last round, and while there was no agreement, there was progress. Both sides are willing to reach an agreement, and that is the right path because it is in the interest of Iran too,” he added. The IAEA has called on Iran to sign and implement a structured approach document to resolve the outstanding issues and has stated that gaining access to the Parchin military site, which is located southeast of Tehran, is a priority for the UN nuclear agency. The IAEA has claimed that Iran might have been trying to sanitize the Parchin site of any incriminating evidence of explosive tests that would indicate efforts to design nuclear weapons. Iran has dismissed the claim, calling it “baseless”. Tehran rejected requests by IAEA delegations to inspect the Parchin site during their visits to Iran from January 29 to 31 and February 21 to 22 and has made it clear that access to the site would not be possible before an agreement is reached on the structured approach document. During his interview with the Times of India, Amano also called for a sense of urgency in dealing with the situation. “We have been negotiating for close to one year, but we don’t have concrete results and that is worrying,” Amano said, adding that he had identified areas where Iran needed to do more. In addition, he stated that the talks between Iran and the IAEA were completely independent of the negotiations between Tehran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany), the latest high-level round of which was held in Moscow on June 18 and 19.