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IAEA Chief Inspector Says Still 'Work to Do' with Iran

The chief U.N. nuclear inspector said Wednesday that there was "still a lot of work to do" with Iran over its contested atomic program, after returning from a three-day trip to Tehran.

"We had three days of intensive discussions about all our priorities. We are committed to resolving all the outstanding issues and the Iranians said they are committed too," Herman Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport.

"But of course there is still a lot of work to be done, and so we have planned another trip in the very near future," he said.

"We had a good trip ... I will now go back to headquarters and inform the DG (International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano) about the mission."

Iranian state media agencies Fars and ISNA had reported on Tuesday that the talks "were held in a positive and constructive atmosphere" but that the team did not inspect any nuclear sites.

Both sides "agreed on continuing the talks" but no date was set, and the six-person team "did not visit any of the nuclear centers and facilities in our country during their trip," INSA said.

The delegation also included IAEA number two Rafael Grossi, an Argentine, and the IAEA's senior legal official Peri Lynne Johnson, a U.S. citizen, according to diplomats.

The visit, the IAEA had said, was aimed at clearing "outstanding substantive issues" on Tehran's nuclear program following a damning report from the agency in November.

That report, which has led to a substantial increase in pressure on Iran from the United States, the European Union and others, detailed a string of areas in which it said Iranian activities were highly suspicious.

Iran has called that report baseless and maintains its nuclear program is peaceful.

Its response to recent, severe Western economic sanctions against its finance and all-important oil sectors has been to defiantly ramp up its nuclear activities.

It has started uranium enrichment at a new fortified bunker in Fordo, near its holy city of Qom, and announced that a 20-percent enriched uranium fuel plate would be inserted into its Tehran research reactor within weeks.

At the same time, though, it has vowed to keep up cooperation with the IAEA.

Source: Agence France Presse


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