Iran, IAEA set for fresh nuclear talks on June 8

VIENNA

The head of the U.N. nuclear agency called on Iran yesterday to sign a deal providing greater transparency regarding its nuclear drive and announced that new talks with Tehran would be held on June 8.

At the opening of a week-long meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board in Vienna, Yukiya Amano also urged Tehran to allow access to a suspected military site near the capital. “I invite Iran to sign and implement ... as soon as possible” an agreement that would allow access to sites, documents and people related to its nuclear program, Amano said.

Access to Parchin
“Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable the agency to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is for peaceful activities,” Amano told the board of governors.

Amano also urged Iran “to provide early access to the Parchin site,” a military base near Tehran where the IAEA believes suspicious explosives testing has been carried out.Satellite images indicate that buildings are being demolished at an Iranian military site, Amano said, stressing the need for his inspectors to go there. “The satellite imagery indicates that these activities include the use of water, the demolishing of buildings, the removing of fences and the moving of soil. These are some of the activities that we have observed through satellite imagery.” For his part, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said a “new chapter” had begun between two sides.