Israel's Peres to meet UN nuclear watchdog chief

Israeli President Shimon Peres flies to Vienna on Sunday for talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency head, the pan-European security watchdog OSCE and Austrian leaders, his office said. Peres and Yukiya Amano, director general of the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, will discuss its "role as the professional body leading the effort to put the brakes on Iran's nuclear programme," his office said in a statement Thursday. The meeting in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, comes after the latest round of negotiations between Iran and world powers earlier this month aimed at curtailing Tehran's nuclear activities. Western powers and Israel suspect Iran is covertly pursuing a nuclear weapons capability alongside its civilian programme, charges adamantly denied by Tehran. Israel has expressed deep scepticism over an interim deal struck by Tehran and world powers in November and said a final agreement must include a complete dismantling of all Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Peres's office said he will also meet in Vienna with the head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Lamberto Zanier, and with Austria's President Heinz Fischer and Chancellor Werner Faymann. Source: AFP