The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it will continue cooperation and talks with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.
The IAEA inspectors have announced that they will continue to hold discussions with Iran; however, they say no final deal has been yet reached and that no date has been set for a fresh round of talks between the two sides.
The IAEA team was in the Iranian capital city, Tehran, earlier in the week for the eighth round of talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
After the talks, Iran’s Ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh, who headed the Iranian negotiating team, said that Tehran and the agency had resolved some differences and reached agreements on certain issues.
He further noted that the remaining differences would be discussed in the next meeting between the two sides.
The talks were held at the headquarters of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the IAEA’s chief inspector Herman Nackaerts headed the agency’s negotiating team.
Iran is also set to resume talks with the P5+1 group of world powers – China, Russia, France, Britain, and the US plus Germany – over its nuclear energy program in Kazakhstan on February 26.
The United States, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, an allegation Iran strongly rejects.
Tehran maintains that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Iran has also noted that the IAEA inspectors have conducted numerous inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities but have invariably failed to find any evidence showing diversion in the Iranian nuclear energy program toward military objectives.
