Iran talks with UN nuclear monitors resume today in Vienna

Bloomberg: Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency resume talks over allowing monitors wider access to places and people suspected of conducting undeclared nuclear work in the Persian Gulf nation.
Bloomberg

By Jonathan Tirone

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency resume talks over allowing monitors wider access to places and people suspected of conducting undeclared nuclear work in the Persian Gulf nation.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano will host Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi for a one-hour meeting at 1:00 p.m. today in Vienna, the agency said last week. That will be immediately followed by talks between nuclear inspectors and Iranian envoys to the UN body.

Negotiations aimed at allowing IAEA inspectors wider access to facilities have been conducted since January 2012. While investigators regularly enter Iran’s declared nuclear facilities, including its two enrichment plants, they say still need to determine the extent of alleged hidden nuclear-weapons work by Iran.

Meeting world powers earlier this month in Geneva, Araghchi said Iran was willing to assent to more stringent inspections among confidence-building measures intended to defuse the decade-long conflict. Atop the IAEA’s list is a visit to the Parchin military base 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Tehran, where Iran allegedly experimented on triggers for a nuclear device.

Iran, with the world’s No. 4 proven oil reserves, denies that it sought nuclear weapons and insists its program is peaceful.