Tehran (dpa) – Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) started talks on Sunday with Iranian officials over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. Both sides have so far kept silent on the exact agenda of the talks but the IAEA team, headed by Chief Inspector Herman Nackaerts, is expected to meet with Iran‘s chief nuclear negotiator Saedi Jalili and atomic chief Fereydoun Abbasi. Upon arrival in the early hours of Sunday, the six inspectors were transferred to the city through one of the rear exits of the Tehran airport, avoiding contact with domestic and foreign reporters at the airport. It is also unclear whether the IAEA team would inspect nuclear sites or just discuss with Iranian officials possible military dimensions of Iran‘s nuclear programs. Iran has for the past 15 years constantly rejected charges by the West that it is developing a covert nuclear weapon program. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi, currently in Ethiopia to attend the African Union summit, expressed optimism on the outcome of the IAEA visit to Iran. “We have coordinated everything in advance, including inspection of nuclear sites, and are generally very optimistic about the outcome of the IAEA mission,” Salehi told ISNA news agency in Addis Ababa. Salehi said that his optimism is based on the fact that Iran's nuclear programs were all transparent and that the country “had nothing to hide.” Salehi further said that chief nuclear negotiator Saedi Jalili would soon write a letter to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to fix a date and venue of the next nuclear negotiations with the world powers. Iran wants the resumption of the talks with the 3+3 group – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US – but Ashton and the powers want a clear agenda prior to the talks, and Iran's agreement to a temporary suspension of its uranium enrichment program until it is certain that Tehran is not working on a secret weapon program. Observers believe the holding of the next nuclear negotiations depend on the report by the IAEA team. If no tangible results achieved in Tehran, the holding of the next meeting would be highly jeopardized. One of the sites which might be inspected by the IAEA team is the new Fordo uranium enrichment facility, located 160 kilometers south of the capital Tehran, which will become operational next month and is capable of enrichment at 20 per cent. Nuclear experts however believe that inspections of nuclear sites will neither help the UN agency nor Iran as all the sites are under IAEA auspices and equipped with cameras, which are also to be installed in Fordo. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/GOIOh Tags: IAEA, Nuclear Section: Iran, Latest News
