Region | Iran
Tehran 'ready to talk to atomic agency' about cooperation
Iran is willing to talk with the International Atomic Energy Agency about information access and cooperation, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 June 2, 2007
Madrid : Iran is willing to talk with the International Atomic Energy Agency about information access and cooperation, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday.
"Iran is ready to discuss outstanding questions with the agency which are linked to information access and cooperation with the agency," she said a day after Solana held discussions with Iran's negotiator Ali Larijani in Madrid.
The spokeswoman added that while there had been no 'fundamental breakthrough', the talks had been 'positive' and the two would meet again in two weeks. Meanwhile Solana would update world leaders.
After Thursday's talks Solana said there had been "advances on some important issues" but gave no details.
Damning report
While they had failed to break the deadlock over Tehran's nuclear programme, they would "continue working at a more intense rhythm than we have had in the past few months", he said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency last week issued a damning report, saying that Iran persists in defying UN demands to stop enriching uranium and was hampering the job of its inspectors on the ground.
Solana's spokeswoman said the question of enrichment was still 'very difficult' but there was a willingness to carry on negotiating.
It was Solana and Larijani's second meeting in just over a month after a fruitless head-to-head round of talks in Turkey in late April.
Prior to the meeting, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Iran to shift its stance of ignoring sanctions-backed UN demands to halt uranium enrichment work, but Tehran remained defiant.
Sceptical
Yesterday she remained highly sceptical after the meeting between Solana and Larijani.
"The only question is are we getting to a point at which the Iranians are prepared to suspend so that negotiations can begin," she said while on a visit to Madrid.
"I don't see evidence of it".
Tehran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons, saying it wants only to produce energy for a growing population in a nation whose fossil fuels will eventually run out.
Share this article
Related Articles
Popular in News
News Editor's choice
-
Protest by rights group fails to stop gory Nepal festival
200,000 animals set to be sacrificed
-
Top Korean model found dead in Paris
Kim was an accomplished painter and video filmmaker who had a solo show of her artwork in Seoul
-
Slain journalist Pearl's widow busy with new film
Widow busy producing documentary on lives of inspirational women
