AEOI chief: Iran, IAEA to hold talks on September 27

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi announced that Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will resume their talks in Vienna, Austria in late September. “Iran and the IAEA have agreed to hold their new round of talks in Vienna on September 27,” Salehi said. The AEOI chief expressed hope that the upcoming talks would bear tangible results. Iran and the IAEA last met in Vienna on May 15. The meeting, which was the 10th of its kind, was presided by former Iranian envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog agency Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh and IAEA deputy Director-General Herman Nackaerts. Iran appointed Reza Najafi as its new envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday. Soltaniyeh served as Iran's permanent representative at the UN nuclear watchdog for nearly a decade. Soltaniyeh’s mission will come to an end on September 1. Najafi, a career diplomat, has served as deputy director-general of the foreign ministry’s political and international bureau and head of the ministry’s disarmament office. The IAEA is the world's center of cooperation in the nuclear field. It was set up as the world’s “Atoms for Peace” organization in 1957 within the United Nations family. The Agency works with its Member States and multiple partners worldwide to promote safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies. The IAEA Secretariat is headquartered at the Vienna International Centre in Vienna, Austria. Operational liaison and regional offices are located in Geneva, Switzerland; New York, USA; Toronto, Canada; and Tokyo, Japan. The IAEA runs or supports research centers and scientific laboratories in Vienna and Seibersdorf, Austria; Monaco; and Trieste, Italy.