IAEA wil continue talks with Iran: Amano
Iran Press TV
Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:7AM GMT
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano says the UN body will continue dialog with Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
Amano made the remarks during a speech at a high-level international IAEA conference in St Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Amano pointed to the recent election of Dr. Hassan Rohani as Iran's new president, saying that the IAEA will not change position on Iran’s nuclear issue with the shift in presidency.
“We’ll continue the dialog with the country and it will be aimed at achieving concrete results.”
The IAEA chief, however, said that dialog “cannot be held endlessly,” adding that the IAEA aims to make sure that the Iranian nuclear energy program pursues peaceful objectives.
Stressing that the decision on Iran’s nuclear energy program is “in competence of the IAEA Board of Governors,” Amano said his task is to collect information and submit it to the agency.
Iran has also repeatedly announced its willingness to maintain cooperation with the IAEA. Last month, Iran's Ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh stressed the country’s “political determination to work with the IAEA in order to remove any ambiguities” regarding its nuclear energy program.
On May 15, Iran and the IAEA wrapped up their latest round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear energy program in Vienna, Austria.
The United States, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran refutes the allegation over its nuclear energy program and argues that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production purposes.
AR/NN/HMV
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