IAEA chief heads to Iran
Intense negotiations between Iran and major world powers ramped up yesterday with the chief of the UN atomic watchdog heading to Tehran for talks on a nuclear bomb probe vital for a deal.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart held fresh negotiations in Vienna seeking to narrow differences before the new deadline of July 7 announced on Tuesday.
The foreign ministers of France and China, Laurent Fabius and Wang Yi, were meanwhile expected back in Vienna Thursday along with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Iran and the P5+1 group -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- are trying to nail down a historic agreement ending a 13-year standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Under a framework deal agreed in April, Iran will massively scale down its nuclear programme in order to make any push to make nuclear weapons all but impossible.
In return, painful sanctions imposed on Iran because of fears it might be seeking the bomb -- something it denies -- would be progressively lifted.
But one of the sticking points has proved to be access to sensitive Iranian military sites.
The International Atomic Energy Agency wants to probe allegations that before 2003 and perhaps since, Iran's nuclear programme had "possible military dimensions" -- in other words, that it conducted nuclear weapons research.
Iranian media said IAEA chief Yukiya Amano would visit Tehran for talks today with President Hassan Rouhani at Iran's invitation.
"The goal of Yukiya Amano's trip is to talk about past activities and receive Iran's suggestions on how to resolve the differences," the Iranian news agency IRNA said.
Another Iranian agency, ISNA, said the country's leaders would offer "suggested solutions" to the impasse.
An accord would be a rare diplomatic success in the Middle East potentially putting Iran on the road to better international relations -- a prospect that alarms rivals Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But finalising the framework agreement from Lausanne, Switzerland has proved difficult and negotiators were forced to abandon Tuesday's deadline and give themselves until July 7 after several days of talks in the Austrian capital.
The IAEA said Amano's visit was to "accelerate the resolution of all outstanding issues related to Iran's nuclear programme, including clarification of possible military dimensions".
Comments