AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota The nuclear monitor, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been locked in a protracted dispute with Iran over access to an Iranian military base where the agency’s inspectors suspect that experiments on nuclear weapons triggers have been performed. Iran has rejected the agency’s repeated requests for unrestricted access to the site, called Parchin.
The access issue has broader implications for Iran’s negotiations with six major powers — the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany — over its entire uranium enrichment program, which are scheduled to take place next Wednesday in Baghdad. The six nations have urged Iran to allow the nuclear inspectors access to Parchin as a sign that it is sincere in promising that Iranian nuclear activities are for peaceful ends.
I.A.E.A. officials and their Iranian counterparts have been negotiating at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, where talks were set to resume on Monday. But the announcement by the agency on Friday changed the site to Tehran, and said that the director general, Yukiya Amano, would lead the delegation.
The announcement said Mr. Amano would travel to Tehran on Sunday “to discuss issues of mutual interest with high Iranian officials.” It continued, “In the course of his one-day working visit on Monday, 21 May, the director general will meet the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Council, His Excellency Saeed Jalili, and other senior representatives of the Iranian government.”
Mr. Jalili is Iran’s lead negotiator in the talks with the six powers.
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency later confirmed the meeting and said Mr. Amano also would meet with the foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, and the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoon Abbasi.
The announcement from Vienna said Mr. Amano would be accompanied by Herman Nackaerts, his deputy, who had been conducting the negotiations with Iran over access to the Parchin site.
A report issued by the nuclear agency on Iran last November said that inspectors had questions about a testing chamber at Parchin that appeared to have been designed for experiments with triggering mechanisms that can be used in nuclear weapons. Iran has called their suspicions baseless.
The access issue has broader implications for Iran’s negotiations with six major powers — the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany — over its entire uranium enrichment program, which are scheduled to take place next Wednesday in Baghdad. The six nations have urged Iran to allow the nuclear inspectors access to Parchin as a sign that it is sincere in promising that Iranian nuclear activities are for peaceful ends.
I.A.E.A. officials and their Iranian counterparts have been negotiating at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, where talks were set to resume on Monday. But the announcement by the agency on Friday changed the site to Tehran, and said that the director general, Yukiya Amano, would lead the delegation.
The announcement said Mr. Amano would travel to Tehran on Sunday “to discuss issues of mutual interest with high Iranian officials.” It continued, “In the course of his one-day working visit on Monday, 21 May, the director general will meet the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Council, His Excellency Saeed Jalili, and other senior representatives of the Iranian government.”
Mr. Jalili is Iran’s lead negotiator in the talks with the six powers.
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency later confirmed the meeting and said Mr. Amano also would meet with the foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, and the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoon Abbasi.
The announcement from Vienna said Mr. Amano would be accompanied by Herman Nackaerts, his deputy, who had been conducting the negotiations with Iran over access to the Parchin site.
A report issued by the nuclear agency on Iran last November said that inspectors had questions about a testing chamber at Parchin that appeared to have been designed for experiments with triggering mechanisms that can be used in nuclear weapons. Iran has called their suspicions baseless.
Thomas Erdbrink contributed reporting from Tehran.
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