IRAN: Iran and IAEA see progress in atomic transparency talks

Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi and IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen hold a joint news conference after two days of talks between IAEA team and Iranian officials on Iran's nuclear programme in Tehran. Two days of talks between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog on an Iranian offer of more nuclear transparency made progress and discussions will continue in the next few weeks, both sides said on Thursday (July 12). Iran has offered to draw up an "action plan" to address Western suspicions that its nuclear programme is a front to obtain nuclear arms. Tehran says it needs nuclear technology only to generate power. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said it cannot be sure of Iran's intentions until several questions about its plans have been answered. Western diplomats have said the United States and its European allies suspect Tehran may be trying to buy time to develop its programme. They say Iran failed last year to make good on a promise of a timetable within three weeks to resolve IAEA doubts, and ask why it now wants 60 days to do so. "We had serious and good meetings. These talks were to reach modalities to resolve outstanding issues. We had constructive and good progress," Javad Vaeedi, Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator who headed the Iranian team, told a news conference. IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen spoke of "good results" in the joint news conference. He said agreement was reached on four or five points but he did not specify them. Both sides would meet again in the next few weeks, he said. A senior Iranian nuclear official told reporters another meeting would be held "very soon" but said no date had been set. IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei has said the transparency offer, combined with what the IAEA has said was a slowdown in Iran's uranium enrichment work, had raised hopes of defusing the row. Two rounds of United Nations sanctions have been imposed on Iran since December for failing to halt enrichment, a process which can make fuel for power plants or material for warheads. A third sanctions resolution is being considered. Shortly after the IAEA team arrived in Tehran on Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Islamic Republic would not halt its nuclear work, once again snubbing U.N. demands. The IAEA wants explanations for traces of highly enriched -- bomb-grade -- uranium found on some equipment, and also wants more information about experiments with plutonium and the status of research into an advanced centrifuge able to enrich uranium three times as fast as the model Iran now uses. The IAEA also wants to know more about documents showing how to cast uranium metal for a bomb core.

ITN Source | July 13, 2007

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