Iranian and UN officials held a “constructive” meeting on resuming a probe of allegations that Tehran has worked on atomic arms, officials said on Friday, in talks seen as a test of pledges by Iran’s new President to reduce nuclear tensions.
The upbeat assessment and an agreement to meet again October 28 was a departure from the deadlock left by previous meetings over nearly two years. At issue are suspicions outlined in reports from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran worked secretly on trying to develop nuclear weapons, something Tehran denies.
As part of its probe, the agency is trying to gain access to a sector at Parchin, a sprawling military establishment southeast of Tehran. Iran says it isn’t interested in atomic arms, but the agency suspects the site may have been used to test conventional explosive triggers meant to set off a nuclear blast. Under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran blamed the IAEA for the standoff, saying it is caused by the agency’s refusal to agree on strict parameters that would govern its probe.