Bloomberg News

IAEA Said to Agree to Meeting With Iran at End of January

By Jonathan Tirone
January 13, 2012

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency has agreed to a meeting at the end of this month between IAEA inspectors and representatives of the Iranian government, two diplomats with knowledge of the talks said.

The agenda for the meeting in Tehran is still being discussed, the diplomats said today on condition of anonymity because the discussions are still in progress. One sticking point is whether the IAEA will allow Iran to study some of the intelligence that alleges military work, according to one of the diplomats.

Citing unidentified sources it said were “credible,” the IAEA reported in November that Iranian work toward a nuclear weapon continued until 2010. Iran, the second largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has maintained that its nuclear program is to generate power.

Iranian Vice President Fereydoun Abbasi traveled to Vienna in June to personally invite IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano to visit the Persian Gulf nation. Iran withdrew the offer in November after the IAEA released its report citing documents that showed work by the Islamic Republic “on the development of an indigenous design of a nuclear weapon including the testing of components.”

Iran has alleged that documents in the IAEA’s possession are forged. The country has in the past refused to address the nuclear-weapons allegations until it is allowed to examine the evidence being used against it.

--Editors: Alan Crawford, Leon Mangasarian

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net

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