Diplomats say IAEA, Iran may meet in August

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN atomic agency and Iran may hold a new round of nuclear talks in August, diplomats said on Monday, July 8, in what would be their first meeting since last month's election of a relative moderate as the Islamic state's president, Reuters reported.

If it does take place, the meeting will be scrutinized by the West for any sign of increased Iranian readiness to compromise in the decade-old international dispute over its nuclear program after the June 14 election of Hassan Rouhani.

A diplomat in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based, said he believed the aim was for an IAEA-Iran meeting in mid-August but that no decision had yet been taken. "I think that no meeting in August would be a bad sign," another Western envoy said.

That would be shortly before the IAEA issues its next, quarterly report on Iran's nuclear program in late August and ahead of a week-long session of the UN agency's 35-nation governing board in September.

Western officials accuse Iran of stonewalling the IAEA's inquiry into suspected atomic bomb research and say Tehran in the past has been keen to meet with the agency shortly before board meetings to try to blunt criticism voiced there.

The IAEA-Iran discussions are separate from, but still closely associated with, broader negotiations between Tehran and six world powers aimed at an overall political solution to the dispute that would head off the risk of a new Middle East war.

The IAEA, according to Reuters, said it had no news to report about any future discussions with Iran. They last met in May in Vienna, without achieving a breakthrough.