Senior IAEA official hails talks with Iran as 'constructive'

A senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) described his recent meeting with the Iranian delegation in Vienna as positive. “We had constructive talks today,” IAEA deputy Director-General Herman Nackaerts said after holding talks with Iran’s representatives in the Austrian capital on Friday. He also announced that the next Iran-IAEA meeting has been scheduled for October. Iran and the IAEA held new round of talks in Vienna on Friday and discussed issues pertaining to Tehran’s nuclear program. They resumed their fresh talks in the Austrian capital ten hours after the historic ministerial level nuclear talks between the Islamic Republic and the six world powers in New York. Iran’s Ambassador to the IAEA Reza Najafi headed the Iranian delegation in talks with a group of the agency’s experts. Najafi replaced Iran’s former ambassador to IAEA Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh shortly after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came to power. Iran and the IAEA last met in Vienna on May 15. The meeting, which was the 10th of its kind, was presided by Soltaniyeh and Nackaerts. Iran appointed Najafi as its new envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency late in August. 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 Center. 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.