The head of the UN nuclear agency called on Iran on Monday to sign a deal giving greater transparency on its nuclear drive and announced that new talks with Tehran would be held this week. At the opening of a week-long meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board in Vienna, Yukiya Amano also urged Tehran to allow access to a suspect military site near the capital. “I invite Iran to sign and implement… as soon as possible” an agreement that would allow access to sites, documents and people related to its nuclear programme, Amano said. Announcing a new round of talks between the IAEA and Iran in Vienna on Friday, Amano said Tehran needed to do more to alleviate Western fears it is developing a nuclear bomb by complying fully with international obligations. Amano also urged Iran “to provide early access to the Parchin site,” a military base near Tehran where the IAEA believes suspicious explosives testing has been carried out. Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh nevertheless noted that after Amano’s visit, “a new chapter of cooperation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the agency has started”.
