Top officials from UN atomic watchdog head to Iran

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano says progress made toward restarting stalled nuclear probe, but ‘more work’ still needed

By AFP 5 July 2015, 11:34 pm

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Iranian Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, right, shakes hands with the head of the UN's atomic watchdog Yukiya Amano during a meeting in Tehran on July 02, 2015. (AFP/ATTA KENARE)

The UN atomic watchdog said Sunday that “senior officials” were flying to Tehran, confirming comments from Iranian sources as talks continued in Vienna towards a major nuclear deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency gave no further details but on Thursday its chief Yukiya Amano held talks in Tehran on jump-starting a stalled nuclear weapons probe.

The investigation is a sticking point in ongoing talks between Iran and major powers in Vienna ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to nail down a deal curbing Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Iran rejects the IAEA’s allegations that before 2003, and possibly since, it conducted research into making a nuclear weapon, saying the claims are based on bogus intelligence provided by foreign spy agencies.

Amano said after returning from Tehran that some progress had been made but that “more work” was needed, and that the IAEA aimed to finalize a report on the probe by the end of the year.