IAEA Official Arrives Friday to Tehran for Talks

Local Editor

Officials representing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are slated to hold a new round of talks with Iranian nuclear authorities in the capital Tehran today, an Iranian official said. A senior official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials on more bilateral cooperation between the two sides.

IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of Department of Safeguards Tero Tapio Varjoranta arrived in Tehran on Friday afternoon along with two other officials from the agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said.
Kamalvandi noted that Iran's Ambassador to the IAEA Reza Najafi and Tapio Varjoranta will preside over the Saturday talks in Tehran.
Kamalvandi said on Friday that the negotiations are aimed at forging closer cooperation between Tehran and the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
Last week, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi had announced that the IAEA inspectors have carried out an inspection of the country's entire nuclear facilities, adding that they will make a report to the agency in the near future.
Salehi also noted that the IAEA's inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities are being conducted smoothly.

Iran and the IAEA signed a joint statement in November 2013 to outline a roadmap on bilateral cooperation on certain outstanding issues. Under the deal, Iran agreed, on a voluntary basis, to allow IAEA inspectors to visit the Arak heavy water plant and the Gachin uranium mine.

The UN nuclear agency's inspectors visited the Arak heavy water plant on December 8, 2013, as the first step to be implemented under the Iran-IAEA agreement. The IAEA inspectors also made a five-hour visit to the Gachin uranium mine in southern Iran in late January.

The agency's safeguards agreement does not require Tehran to authorize IAEA inspections of those sites. The voluntary move is a goodwill gesture on the part of Iran to clear up ambiguities over the peaceful nature of its nuclear energy program.

Source: Agencies, edited by website team