Iran sets conditions for cooperation with IAEA

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran says it is ready to work more closely with the UN nuclear agency - but only if it stops probing allegations that Tehran worked on aspects of a weapons program.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says he wants the International Atomic Energy Agency to declare that probe closed in exchange for a "new mechanism" of working together with the IAEA.

Salehi spoke after meeting Tuesday, July 12, with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. Tehran has accused Amano of pro-U.S. bias in suggesting that Tehran appears to have secretly worked on components of a nuclear weapons program, AP reported.

Iran insists its activities are peaceful and meant only to produce nuclear fuel for a future network of reactors. But its uranium enrichment program can also create fissile warhead material, and it has stonewalled IAEA attempts to probe the weapons allegations.