VIENNA: Officials of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), have failed to clinch a deal in talks with Iran this week on enhanced inspections of Tehran’s nuclear program, the IAEA’s chief inspector said.
“We had discussions on the structured approach document but could not finalise the document,” Herman Nackaerts, the IAEA’s chief inspector, told reporters on Thursday.
The lack of a breakthrough in Wednesday’s meeting in Tehran, though expected by Western diplomats, represented a new setback for international efforts to resolve a decade-old dispute over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
It comes ahead of the scheduled February 26 nuclear talks in Kazakhstan between Iran and six world powers over the Islamic republic’s atomic activities which the West fears are aimed at developing nuclear bombs, but Iran denies this.
“We haven’t agreed yet on a date for the next meeting,” Herman Nackaerts added.
DND
