IAE holds talks on cooperation

Iran's Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh announced that the Iranian and IAEA experts' recent negotiations covered cooperation and mutual understanding between the two sides. Soltaniyeh said on Tuesday that a second round of talks in Tehran between Iranian officials and a delegation from the IAEA has ended. The Iranian envoy said the talks had covered cooperation and mutual understanding between the Islamic Republic and the IAEA. He also underlined that the country will hold further talks with the agency over its civilian nuclear energy program. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast had announced on Tuesday that the International Atomic Energy Agency's team which is currently in Tehran is not due to inspect the country's nuclear facilities, adding that the result of the trip could affect the upcoming talks between Iran and the world powers. "We should wait and see what issues will be resulted from the (IAEA) delegation's visit to Iran and what effects they will have in our negotiations with the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany)," Mehman-Parast told reporters in his weekly press conference. He underlined that the results of the IAEA delegation's negotiations with the Iranian officials will determine the framework of cooperation in future talks. In relevant remarks on Monday, Iranian top diplomat Ali Akbar Salehi had also underlined that the current visit to Iran by a high-raking delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency is being carried out based on the previous agreements made by Tehran and the IAEA. "The visit by these experts has been made following an agreement between them and the officials of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) in their recent trip to Tehran and the activities will continue within this framework," Salehi told FNA. A delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency headed by IAEA Deputy Director-General Herman Nackaerts arrived in Iran on Monday. Before boarding the plane at Vienna International Airport, Nackarets expressed the hope that he and his accompanying delegation will have a constructive visit to Tehran. Nackarets is heading a five-member delegation comprising the IAEA experts who will pay a two-day visit to Iran. The IAEA official said that resolving Iran's nuclear case needs time due to the fact that it is a complicated issue. Earlier, Nackaerts had said at Vienna airport upon arrival from his last visit to Iran in January that the UN nuclear watchdog would send another delegation to Iran in the near future. "But of course there is still a lot of work to be done, and so we have planned another trip in the very near future," Nackaerts said, following his visit to Iran to discuss Tehran's nuclear program. The deputy director-general of the UN nuclear agency also said that both sides are "committed" to resolving all outstanding issues. "We had three days of intensive discussions about all our priorities. We are committed to resolving all the outstanding issues and the Iranians said they are committed too," he said at the time.