UN nuclear experts tackle Iran on arms allegations

The UN nuclear agency and Tehran held new talks today on allegations of past Iranian weapons work and on additional safeguards to allay international concerns over its nuclear ambitions.
The day-long discussions with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will build on a framework deal agreed in November that required Tehran to take six practical steps by next Tuesday.
With completion of those measures - including a visit to the heavy water plant at the unfinished Arak reactor - talks on "more difficult things" are expected to begin, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano has said.
A team of IAEA experts led by chief inspector Tero Varjoranta arrived in Tehran late yesterday to assess the implementation of those measures, Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said.

That assessment will decide the scope of future cooperation, he said, expressing the hope that "the agency's doubts have been removed".
The experts met nuclear officials led by Iran's IAEA envoy Reza Najafi, Kamalvandi said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.

The talks could be extended if there is major progress, media reports said.
The six-step deal was struck on November 11 after two years and nearly a dozen rounds of talks.
It is separate to the landmark nuclear agreement also reached in November with world powers that has placed temporary curbs on Iran's nuclear activities.
Implementation began on December 8 when IAEA inspectors visited Arak, where the small unfinished heavy water reactor has been hit by delays.

The site - which Iran insists is an integral part of its nuclear programme for mainly research purposes - is of international concern because Tehran could theoretically extract weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel if it also builds a reprocessing facility.
Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said this week the reactor could be modified to produce less plutonium to "allay the worries".
The Islamic republic's nuclear activities have been in the international spotlight for more than a decade over suspicions in the West and Israel that they mask military objectives, despite repeated denials.
The IAEA is focusing on past work to clear allegations that before 2003, and possibly since, Iran's nuclear drive had "possible military dimensions".

Tehran denies now or ever seeking nuclear weapons, claiming that such allegations are based on faulty intelligence.
Amano told AFP in an exclusive interview last month that the time is now ripe to ask Iran "more difficult" questions.
"We started with measures that are practical and easy to implement, and then we move on to more difficult things," he said.