A U.N. nuclear watchdog team will visit the Iranian capital for talks in coming days, an Iranian regime official said on Friday.
Reza Najafi, the Iranian regime ambassador to the Vienna-based U.N. agency, said the IAEA delegation would be led by Tero Varjoranta, the agency’s deputy director general.
The visit is taking place more than a month after the Iranian regime missed a deadline for cooperation with the U.N. nuclear agency in investigation into Tehran’s atomic bomb research.
Diplomats in Vienna told Reuters on Thursday that the agency makes new attempts to achieve progress in the slow-moving inquiry into the military dimensions of the regime’s nuclear program.
Early last month, the head of the U.N. atomic agency urged the Iranian regime to provide answers about the works done on nuclear arms.
Yukiya Amano said the Iranian regime had implemented some measures in an agreement but they have been mostly in areas that have nothing to do with the weapons work.
With his probe of nuclear weapons work by the Iranian regime sputtering, Amano warned the Iranian regime last week to either cooperate or accept the prospect of a ruling based on incomplete information. He said the nuclear weapon probe “is not an endless process.”
According to the Reuters, Western officials say that although there is no chance of the IAEA inquiry being completed before the scheduled end of the six-power talks on November 24, some of the sanctions relief Iran is seeking would probably depend on its cooperation with the U.N. agency.
Meanwhile, a large majority of members of US House of Representatives wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry expressing their concern Thursday over the Iranian regime’s “refusal” to work with the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
In a joint letter 354 of the House’s 435 members warned that the IAEA has been frustrated in its efforts to investigate the “potential military dimensions” of the Iranian regime’s nuclear program.
“We believe that Iran’s willingness to fully reveal all aspects of its nuclear program is a fundamental test of Iran’s intention to uphold a comprehensive agreement,” wrote the lawmakers including House Speaker John Boehner and several Democrats.
“We remain deeply concerned with Iran’s refusal to fully cooperate with the (IAEA),” they added.
“The only reasonable conclusion for its stonewalling of international investigators is that Tehran does indeed have much to hide.”
In a September 5 report, the IAEA said that Tehran is failing to fully respond to questions about its nuclear program.
A Washington Post editorial urged President Obama on Friday to resist the temptation to make further concessions in order to complete a long-term deal by November,.
The editorial says “Iran should be offered, at best, an extension of the existing arrangement, with the current sanctions left in place — and threatened with tougher measures if it does not accept.”
U.S. officials had hoped that an intensive week of negotiations at the United Nations last month would open the way to a deal but, by the account of both sides, little headway was made. “The gaps are still serious,” said a U.S. official briefing reporters at the end of the talks.
According to The Washington Post, Tehran appears to be sticking to its insistence on maintaining and eventually vastly expanding its nuclear infrastructure while offering only a temporary slowdown in uranium enrichment and “increased transparency.” It is refusing to discuss its ballistic missile program and still isn’t cooperating with international inspectors’ probe into its past nuclear weapons design work.
