By DPA
Vienna : Representatives of Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were said to hold additional talks Thursday in Vienna on questions regarding Iran’s nuclear activities.
The meeting comes after Iran announced that it provided full information regarding its P1 and P2 centrifuges after four-day talks between the IAEA and Iran in Tehran last week.
The IAEA’s upcoming report on these questions is key to deciding on further sanctions against Iran.
Vienna-based diplomats said that Mohammad Saeedi, deputy director of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, was expected in Vienna. He was to meet with IAEA chief inspector Olli Heinonen.
Officials could not confirm whether the meeting was to go ahead as planned and whether it was outside ongoing routine consultations. “I believe it is regular meeting,” a diplomat said.
An IAEA spokesperson declined to comment. The UN nuclear watchdog also did not comment whether all ambiguities regarding Iran’s centrifuge file had been removed.
Iran and the IAEA agreed in August on a work plan aiming at removing all open technical questions about Iran’s nuclear projects and at the same time prepare the ground for political talks between Iran and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
The US criticized the plan for not addressing the key concern of uranium enrichment suspension, as demanded by the UN Security Council.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Russia, China, France, Britain and the US plus Germany – agreed last week on a third round of tougher sanctions unless the IAEA and Solana could report Tehran’s full cooperation.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Wednesday Iran would retreat from its course. He reiterated Iran already possessed over 3,000 centrifuges, refraining, however, to disclose how many are operating.
Centrifuges linked in cascades are employed for enriching uranium, either for nuclear fuel production, or, if enriched to a higher degree, as a basis for nuclear weapons.
Ahmadinejad claimed several times in the past Iran had 3,000 centrifuges but Iranian nuclear officials never confirmed the number.
According to the IAEA’s last report from late August, Iran had fewer than 2,000 centrifuges working in its Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran, with a further 650 installed but not yet operating.
The IAEA said it would not comment on the numbers until its next confidential report, expected to be released late next week.