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IAEA, Iran hold fresh round of nuclear talks in Vienna

Xinhua, May 15, 2012

• Senior officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday called on Iran to allow inspectors access to sites, people and documents the agency seeks to address concerns that the country might have been working on nuclear weapons.

  Delegates from Iran and the IAEA met at Iran's permanent representative office in Vienna, where the two-day talks were reported to be less about concrete questions regarding Iran's nuclear facilities, and more about the terms on which the inspectors should be able to work.

  IAEA safeguards head Herman Nackaerts said during the talks that inspectors should be allowed to talk with employees of suspected sites and collect information, according to an Austrian Press Agency (APA) report.

  "It is important for Iran to give free access to people, documents, information and locations," Nackaerts said.

  Western countries have long suspected Iran of seeking nuclear weapons capabilities, an allegation strongly denied by Iranian officials who insist the country's nuclear program is purely for energy needs and medical research.

  One issue figured prominently in recent IAEA-Iran talks is the agency's demand for access to Iran's Parchin military site southeast of Tehran.

  An IAEA report on Iranian nuclear issue cited information that Iran had built a large containment chamber at Parchin to conduct high-explosives tests suspected of relating to nuclear weapons research works.

  Iran's envoy to the IAEA Ali-Asghar Soltanieh has said that access to Parchin would only be granted if Iran and the IAEA agree on certain conditions.

  The IAEA said its previous two rounds of talks earlier this year in Tehran over the possible military dimensions of its nuclear activities failed to achieve concrete results.

  However, talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as well as Germany in Turkey's Istanbul in April raised new hope of a negotiated settlement of the long-standing Iranian nuclear issue.

  The six countries and Iran will hold next round of nuclear talks in Iraqi capital Baghdad on May 23.

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