UN nuclear chief holds Iran talks as deadlines loom

The head of the UN atomic watchdog held talks in Iran on Sunday ahead of an August 25 deadline for Tehran to answer decade-old allegations of past nuclear weapons research. Yukiya Amano held morning talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif before meeting President Hassan Rouhani, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported. Addressing the allegations, long denied by Tehran, would be an important element in the comprehensive deal on Iran's nuclear programme that world powers are seeking to reach by November 24. In a short statement on Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said only that Amano's visit, his first to Iran since November, was ‘part of the efforts to advance dialogue and cooperation’. But it comes shortly before an August 25 deadline for Iran to provide the IAEA with information to clear up some of the many claims of past and possibly ongoing research into nuclear weapons. As part of the implementation of the interim deal it struck with world powers last November, Iran handed the IAEA documents in April and May relating to its past research, the first time it had done so in six years. Amano welcomed the move but warned in June that the information would take time to assess and that the IAEA had further questions about the research, most of which was conducted more than a decade ago, according to AFP.