Last update - 00:00 13/07/2007
IAEA: Iran agrees to concessions on nuclear enrichment program
By News Agencies
Iran has lifted its ban on visits to a nuclear facility by UN experts and will now allow them to inspect the site, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday. It also said Tehran was ready to answer key questions on past experiments that the international community fears could be
linked to a weapons program.
The IAEA - the UN's nuclear monitor - said Iran promised the concessions
earlier this week in a meeting between its officials and a senior delegation from the Vienna-based agency.
The agency also said it had agreed with Iran a visit of its inspectors to Iran's heavy water research reactor by the end of July and how to deal with safeguards at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant by early August.
In June, Iran and the agency agreed to draw up an "action plan" on how to resolve questions about the country's disputed nuclear program. Western powers suspect that its nuclear program is a front to obtain nuclear arms. Tehran says it wants nuclear technology only to generate power.
IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen met Javad Vaeedi, Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator, and Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, on Wednesday and Thursday in the Iranian capital to discuss the plan.
The IAEA said it would meet Iran representatives in Vienna in July to finalise the work plan on outstanding issues. Another meeting dedicated to Iran's past plutonium experiments would be held in Iran in early August, the agency added.