TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has described the talks recently held between Iranian and International Atomic Energy Agency officials as a step forward.
A high-level delegation of the IAEA, headed by Herman Nackaerts, the IAEA deputy director general and the head of the IAEA Department of Safeguards, arrived in Iran on Sunday for a three-day visit and held talks with Iranian officials on the issues of concern to the UN nuclear watchdog.
In an interview with the Persian service of the Fars News Agency on Tuesday, Salehi said that the meetings were "positive", adding, "It was agreed that consultations will continue."
On what was discussed during the meetings, he said, "The team had questions about alleged (weapons) studies, and praise be to Allah, very good meetings were held."
Asked if the IAEA inspectors visited the country's nuclear facilities, Salehi said that no inspection was carried out. "We would have been ready to make the preparations if they had wanted to conduct an inspection.
"Some preliminary work has been carried out, and in future consultations whose details will be announced later by the relevant officials, it will become clear what steps will be taken next."
Another trip to Iran planned
Nackaerts told reporters in Vienna after returning from Tehran on Wednesday, "We are committed to resolving all the outstanding issues and the Iranians said they are committed too. 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," Reuters reported.
Asked if he was satisfied with the talks, Nackaerts said, "Yeah, we had a good trip."
He described the three days of talks as "intensive discussions" but declined to give any more details, saying he first needed to brief his superiors.
Iran to announce readiness for 5+1 talks again
Elsewhere in the interview, the Iranian foreign minister replied to a question about the continuation of talks between Tehran and the 5+1 group (the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany), saying that the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, who is Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, had already announced readiness to resume talks.
He will announce Iran's readiness once again in a written form, and "we hope that a meeting will be held in the not too distant future," Salehi added.
© Tehran Times 2012
