VIENNA, August 15. /ITAR-TASS/. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano will pay an official visit to Iran on August 17 to discuss the issues concerning the controversial Iranian nuclear program with the country’s authorities, the IAEA said in a statement on Friday.
“The visit is part of the effort to advance dialogue and cooperation between the Agency and Iran,” the statement said.
Iran says it needs nuclear power to generate electricity, while Western powers led by the United States claim Iran’s eventual aim is to create nuclear weapons.
The ongoing negotiations between the five permanent UN Security Council members (Russia, China, France, Britain and the United States) plus Germany with Iran are aimed to agree on an action plan developed jointly with six international negotiators to verify that Tehran is implementing its deal with the international community to restrict its nuclear program.
The final round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group, which was supposed to be held on July 20, was rescheduled for November 24.
The interim deal on the Iranian nuclear issue, inked on November 24, 2013, called for taking the first step of reciprocal actions to prove good faith in a six-month period to be followed by negotiations for a comprehensive agreement, according to which the Western governments will acknowledge the Iranian nuclear program as civilian.
The deal was called the first step to be followed by a comprehensive agreement, which, on the one hand, should resolve the international community’s concerns about the Iranian nuclear program and, on the other hand, remove economic sanctions that slow down Iran’s economic development. The agreement reached by and between Iran and the P5+1 Group in Geneva last year became effective as of January 20.