No Breakthrough Between Iran and UN Nuclear Watchdog
Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan delivers a speech during the 4th Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) in Moscow on Thursday. (Reuters)
VIENNA: The UN nuclear watchdog said it had a “constructive exchange” with Iran this week but there was no sign of a breakthrough on aspects of its nuclear program that the agency says Tehran has failed to fully address.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is investigating Iran’s nuclear program in parallel to talks between Tehran and six world powers that aim to broker a deal by the end of June to scale down the program in exchange for sanctions relief.
In any final deal, the IAEA would play a major role in monitoring Iran’s compliance.
The IAEA said in March it expected progress with Iran this month on outstanding issues related to the nature of neutron calculations and alleged experiments on explosives that could be used to develop an atomic device.
It said then it expected Iran to propose new measures to address other outstanding issues with the IAEA by mid-April.