Iran to further cooperate with IAEA

A senior Iranian lawmaker says Tehran will continue to be cooperative provided that the West is really seeking to learn the truth about Iran's nuclear energy program, Press TV reported.

"If Westerners are really seeking to find the truth, we will continue cooperation (with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)) just as we did in the past," said Seyyed Baqer Hosseini, a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, on Saturday.

"Considering our [past] cooperation with the agency (IAEA), we must make more serious demands for continuing these talks," he added.

On Thursday, top Iranian and IAEA officials including Iran's Ambassador to the agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, and the body's deputy director general, Herman Nackaerts, held bilateral talks on the Islamic Republic's nuclear energy program.

Nackaerts said that progress was made during the Thursday talks and announced more negotiations were due with Iran on January 16.

The IAEA official said that he expected to reach a deal with Iran in January on the remaining issues related to the country's nuclear energy program.

Iran and the world body last held talks in the Austrian capital of Vienna on August 24, 2012.

Hosseini also described the Tehran-IAEA talks as a prelude to negotiations with the P5+1 - which comprises of Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany - and added that the agency must pressure the world powers to sit at the negotiating table without "prejudgment."

The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran refutes the allegation and argues that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and an IAEA member state, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.


/Trend/