BICOM

Inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), returned from talks in Iran yesterday without having reached any agreement on inspection of Iranian nuclear sites and with no date set for a new round of talks.

IAEA officials were visiting Iran for the third time in three months in an attempt to glean further information on Iran’s nuclear programme and in particular to gain access to the Parchin site, at which it suspects Iran may have built a blast chamber for testing nuclear weapons components. However, no such progress was made during the talks and IAEA chief inspector Hermann Nackaerts said on his return from Tehran, “We will work hard now to try and resolve the remaining differences, but time is needed to reflect on a way forward.” Meanwhile, Reuters quotes an unnamed IAEA official who bluntly criticised Iran saying, “Despite its many commitments to do so, Iran has not negotiated in good faith,” adding “It appears that we now have to ask ourselves if this is still the right tactic.”

The deadlock is compounded by Iran’s announcement on Wednesday that it has begun installing upgraded advanced centrifuges at its Natanz plant, which will fuel Western fears that Iran is increasingly able to upgrade uranium to 20 per cent, considered just a short step from weapons-grade material.

These developments come less than two weeks before the next round of talks is scheduled to take place in Kazakhstan between Iran and the P5+1 powers – the United States, UK, China, Russia, France and Germany – who are tasked with leading the international effort to resolve concerns over Tehran’s nuclear programme through a diplomatic solution.