The UN nuclear agency and Tehran held new talks on Saturday on allegations of past Iranian weapons work and on additional safeguards to allay international concerns over its nuclear ambitions.
The day-long discussions with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will build on a framework deal agreed in November that required Tehran to take six practical steps by next Tuesday.
With completion of those measures — including a visit to the heavy water plant at the unfinished Arak reactor — talks on “more difficult things” are expected to begin, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano has said.
Implementation began on December 8 when IAEA inspectors visited Arak, where the small unfinished heavy water reactor has been hit by delays.
The site — which Iran insists is an integral part of its nuclear programme for mainly research purposes — is of international concern because Tehran could theoretically extract weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel if it also builds a reprocessing facility.
The Islamic republic’s nuclear activities have been in the international spotlight for more than a decade over suspicions in the West and Israel that they mask military objectives, despite repeated denials.
The IAEA is focusing on past work to clear allegations that before 2003, and possibly since, Iran’s nuclear drive had “possible military dimensions”.
Another topic for discussion is access to the Parchin military facility where the agency suspects Tehran may have experimented with atomic weapons development research.
Full cooperation with the IAEA is a key demand of world powers — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France as well as Germany — in the nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1.