Report: UN nuclear chief arrives in Iran, seeking progress on probe

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s state TV is reporting UN nuclear chief Yukiya Amano has arrived in Tehran to “clarify past and current issues” of the country’s nuclear program.

Television footage showed Amano and his team arriving in Tehran airport. It is Amano’s second visit in three months.

Iran and the world powers have agreed to a landmark deal that that curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of international economic sanctions.

The television report said Amano, during his visit to Tehran, would also attend a meeting of a special parliamentary committee that is reviewing the nuclear deal.

Diplomats told The Associated Press on Friday that Amano was planning a trip to push for long-delayed interviews with Iranian scientists linked to alleged experiments as well as to discuss a planned inspection of Parchin. The agency has identified that site, southeast of Tehran, as where some of the suspected work took place.

The diplomats said Amano also will be discussing an inspection of Parchin, a military facility where some of the alleged experiments took place. The diplomats, who are accredited to the IAEA, demanded anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss Amano’s agenda.

The interviews and the Parchin inspection are crucial to IAEA’s goal of wrapping up more than a decade of agency efforts to probe the allegations.

The trip is significant, with Amano traveling less than a month before an Oct. 15 deadline to gather information on allegations that Iran tried to build atomic weapons.

Iran denies any work on — or interest in — nuclear weapons. It says IAEA suspicions are based on false intelligence from the United States, Israel and other adversaries. In refusing access to scientists the agency is interested in, Iran cites past assassinations of several experts it says worked on peaceful nuclear programs.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.