Asia

Asia

IAEA chief says dialogue with Iran in "good atmosphere"

21 May 2012 23:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano said on Monday that he had intensive talks with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in "good atmosphere," APA reports quoting Xinhua.

In the meeting, diverse topics including nuclear disarmament, peaceful use of nuclear energy and future cooperation were discussed, Amano was quoted as saying.

"Some work was left (to be discussed), but they won’t bar the advancement (of future) talks," said the chief of the UN watchdog according to the report.

"We held expansive and intensive talks in good atmosphere. For sure, the progress in the dialogue will have positive impact on the (upcoming) Iran-P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) talks. Of course, these two are separate subjects, but can help each other," the report quoted Amano as saying.

"I am committed to solving the (Iranian nuclear) issue through dialogue," he added.

Asked why the IAEA does not want to develop a modality to solve the remaining issues of Iran’s nuclear program, he said that "I don’t want to enter the details, but the IAEA has its own viewpoints and Iran has its own (in this regard)," said Amano according to Mehr.

For his part, Jalili said that "we had good talks with Amano" in three areas, including nuclear disarmament, countering proliferation of nuclear weapons and peaceful use of nuclear energy for NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) signatories.

Jalili expressed hope that Iran and IAEA will have good cooperation in these three areas in future, according to state-run IRIB TV website.

Amano arrived in Tehran Monday for crucial nuclear talks. During his one-day working visit, Amano is also scheduled to meet Iran’s foreign minister.

The UN nuclear watchdog said Friday in a brief statement that Amano would visit Tehran for nuclear talks and would discuss issues of mutual interest with high-level Iranian officials on Monday.

The talks would aim at pushing Iran to allow IAEA experts access to nuclear sites, people and documents that the agency hopes to inspect to address concerns that the country might have been working on nuclear weapons, said the media.