No concrete deal after Iran, IAEA meeting

Updated: 2013-05-16 08:11

(Xinhua)

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VIENNA - No concrete deal was made at the meeting between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna, while both sides agreed on more talks to finalize a nuclear inspection document, officials said on Wednesday.

"Proposals were given by both sides, we decided both sides will work out carefully on the these proposals given today," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the UN nuclear agency told reporters after their one-day meeting. "We have a very construction and intensive discussion today," he said.

"We must recognize that our best efforts have not been successful so far,"said Herman Nackaerts, the Deputy Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who is leaving his position soon afterwards.

However, Nackaerts said he would continue to discuss the "structured approach" with Iran in the next round of talks.

IAEA has been striving hard in a year and half to strike a deal with Tehran over the document which could authorize investigations into Iran's disputed nuclear program.

It has been tipped the talk could hardly make any progress before the meeting even started.

One Vienna based diplomat told Xinhua he is not surprised with the result. "We are not surprised, the differences between the two sides can hardly be bridged," a the diplomat told Xinhua after the talks,"they proceed the talk only because the talks have not broken down, but still tough in the future."

Officials based in Vienna said since the inspections are already beyond the "Safeguard Agreement", Iran wants the agency to close the case once the "possible military dimensions" of its nuclear activities are clarified, which IAEA could not accept.

The UN agency wants Iran to open access to the skeptical sites and document relevant to Iran's nuclear program when Iran's nuclear activities are suspected by the Agency, to which Iran opposes.

Soltanieh said the Agency could not conduct the investigation by the "baseless" intelligences provided by the western intelligent agency anytime.

Iran is asking IAEA to provide such intelligence to Iran so Tehran could carry out cooperation with the UN nuclear watch dog, however, the agency said it's still not the "right time."

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