By IANS
Vienna : Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have agreed to resolve all the outstanding issues regarding the Islamic country’s nuclear programme within a month, the UN nuclear watchdog has said.
In a statement released Sunday, the IAEA said both sides have agreed to a new modality that envisages resolving the remaining issues in a month, Iranian news agency IRNA reported Monday.
According to the statement, the agreement was reached during the two-day visit of IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei to Iran, where he met senior Iranian officials including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution.
Ali-Asqar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, also confirmed the agreement Monday and said that Iran would do its best to remove all remaining ambiguities and settle all outstanding issues.
“Iran hopes the move will encourage the IAEA board of governors in the March meeting to bring the Iranian nuclear dossier to a normal course again,” Soltanieh was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.
The West, especially the US, has been accusing Iran of having a weapons plan in the disguise of a nuclear power plant project, but Iran insists that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.
The West’s main demand still remains that Iran should suspend its uranium enrichment process or else face a third UN resolution and financial sanctions. Tehran has so far rejected this demand.