United Nations atomic agency says Iran nuclear talks to resume on 27 Sept
Talks between the UN atomic agency and Iran over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme will resume on 27 September, a spokesman from the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
The last round of discussions between the two parties were last held in mid-May, before the election of current Iranian President Hassan Rowhani, who was Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator under reformist president Mohammad Khatami in the early 2000s.
The September meeting will take place in Vienna, the IAEA headquarters, the atomic agency's spokesman said, but did not specify who would attend.
The lineup of two teams will likely be significantly altered at the new round of talks, as the Iranian representative to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh has recently been replaced and the agency's chief inspector Herman Nackaerts is due to retire in September.
Delegates from the UN atomic agency and Iranian officials have held ten rounds of failed meetings since the November 2011 publication of a major IAEA report on Tehran's nuclear programme.
Director-general Yukiya Amano expressed his frustration in June at talks that were ‘going around in circles’.
The IAEA wants Iran to grant access to sites, documents and scientists involved in Tehran's alleged efforts to develop atomic weapons, which the agency suspects mostly took place before 2003 but are possibly still ongoing. Iran says the IAEA's findings are based on faulty intelligence from foreign spy agencies such as the CIA and Israel's Mossad — intelligence it complains it has not even been allowed to see.
The last round of discussions between the two parties were last held in mid-May, before the election of current Iranian President Hassan Rowhani, who was Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator under reformist president Mohammad Khatami in the early 2000s.
The September meeting will take place in Vienna, the IAEA headquarters, the atomic agency's spokesman said, but did not specify who would attend.
The lineup of two teams will likely be significantly altered at the new round of talks, as the Iranian representative to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh has recently been replaced and the agency's chief inspector Herman Nackaerts is due to retire in September.
Delegates from the UN atomic agency and Iranian officials have held ten rounds of failed meetings since the November 2011 publication of a major IAEA report on Tehran's nuclear programme.
Director-general Yukiya Amano expressed his frustration in June at talks that were ‘going around in circles’.
The IAEA wants Iran to grant access to sites, documents and scientists involved in Tehran's alleged efforts to develop atomic weapons, which the agency suspects mostly took place before 2003 but are possibly still ongoing. Iran says the IAEA's findings are based on faulty intelligence from foreign spy agencies such as the CIA and Israel's Mossad — intelligence it complains it has not even been allowed to see.