Eurasia Press & News
Iran and experts from the UN nuclear watchdog are satisfied with the results of the recent talks on Tehran’s controversial nuclear program, Iran’s deputy nuclear negotiator said. The second round of talks between Iranian leaders and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials, which ended on Thursday in Tehran, focused on P-1 and P-2 gas centrifuges, used for the enrichment of uranium.
”In the last three days we have held very productive and professional talks with IAEA experts on P-1 and P-2 centrifuges,” Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Javad Vaeedi as saying.
Iran currently uses P-1 centrifuges. It is carrying out research work on an advanced P-2 model, which is more reliable.
”During the talks, Iran provided IAEA experts with explanations of these centrifuges,” Vaeedi said. ”We have agreed to continue the negotiations at expert level next week.”
An IAEA delegation, headed by Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen, arrived in Tehran early on Tuesday. The parties subsequently held some 13 hours of negotiations.
The first round of negotiations on Iran’s uranium enrichment centrifuges was held on September 24 and 25, and involved teams of nuclear power experts.
Iran has around 3,000 functional enrichment centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear research centre. The country’s leaders previously said that they intend to make the country independent of nuclear fuel imports.
In mid-September, the six countries involved in talks to persuade Iran to drop uranium enrichment delayed a vote on a new set of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, now set to be held by November. The vote was postponed pending reports from the IAEA and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
The six nations involved in the talks are China, US, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany.
The US and France have urged tougher penalties against Iran.
