IAEA Chief in Tehran for Talks after Deal

Local Editor

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano held talks in Tehran Monday on ensuring Iran's continued compliance with a nuclear deal the US and Iranian presidents hailed as a historic breakthrough.

The UN's watchdog said Amano would meet President Hassan Rouhani and the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, to discuss monitoring and verifying Iran's commitments under the agreement.

In a statement that followed the deal, Amano said: "A lot of work has gone into getting us here, and implementation of this agreement will require a similar effort."

Earlier on Saturday, the agency confirmed that Tehran complied with its obligations under last summer's accord, leading the US and the EU to lift sanctions imposed over Iran's disputed nuclear program that crippled its economy for a decade.

Rouhani, a moderate whose 2013 election victory helped launch a huge diplomatic effort toward the deal struck on July 14 in Vienna, said the implementation was a crucial moment for his country.

In the context, the official Iranian news agency quoted him as saying: "We Iranians have reached out to the world... have opened a new chapter in the relations of Iran with the world."

For his part, the US President Barack Obama said the advance was proof of his contentious policy of engagement.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team