AFP: Iran will hold a new round of talks with UN atomic watchdog officials on Tuesday as part of its agreement to answer questions about its nuclear drive, the state news agency IRNA reported. TEHRAN (AFP) Iran will hold a new round of talks with UN atomic watchdog officials on Tuesday as part of its agreement to answer questions about its nuclear drive, the state news agency IRNA reported.
“The next round of the Islamic republic’s talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency will be held on Tuesday, October 9 during the trip to Tehran by an agency delegation,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted as saying.
The IAEA and Iran reached an agreement in August for Tehran to provide answers to outstanding questions over its controversial nuclear programme including plutonium experiments as well as P1 and P2 centrifuges.
When asked whether P1 and P2 centrifuges would be part of the talks, Hosseini said: “These issues will be also discussed.”
Iran has been seeking to develop advanced P2 centrifuges which are capable of enriching uranium more efficiently than the P1 technology it currently uses.
Earlier this month, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei urged Iran to provide key details on its nuclear programme by late November, warning that its unwillingness to work with the international community will “backfire”.
Hosseini said there would be a new meeting between Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana but that there was no “clear date.”
Solana had called for several meetings with Larijani before he submits a report to the UN Security Council next month.
He is to report to major world powers Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the United States before mid-November on Iran’s willingness to give up uranium enrichment in exchange for political and trade incentives.
The major powers, split over whether to impose further sanctions against Iran, said last week that they would wait for Solana’s report and another from ElBaradei before deciding what action to take.
Iran denies Western charges that it is seeking nuclear weapons but has drawn UN sanctions for refusing to freeze uranium enrichment, a process which creates nuclear fuel but can also make the core of an atomic bomb.
