IAEA chief visit to Iran may yield agreement: official

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IAEA chief visit to Iran may yield agreement: official

(Xinhua) 08:19, November 06, 2013

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TEHRAN, Nov. 5 -- Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano will visit Iran on Nov. 11 and an agreement is likely to be yielded between the two sides, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran ( AEOI), said on Tuesday.

Amano has accepted an invitation extended to him to visit the Islamic republic to lead the planned talks between Iran and the IAEA in Tehran, Ali-Akbar Salehi, the AEOI head, was quoted as saying by Press TV.

Iran's atomic chief expressed hope that Tehran and the IAEA would reach an agreement and issue a joint statement.

"We are ready more than before to cooperate with the agency," Salehi said, adding that "we are optimistic about the future of the talks."

Following Salehi's remarks on Tuesday, the IAEA said in a statement that Iran's invitation has been considered by the IAEA director general and he is "expected to visit Iran on Nov. 11."

Head of the UN atomic watchdog and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met on Oct. 28, with Araqchi saying that the meeting was "very useful and constructive."

Earlier in October, Salehi announced that Iran was prepared to voluntarily cooperate with the IAEA on "outstanding issues" related to its nuclear program.

The IAEA has held 12 rounds of meetings with Iran since 2011, but no progress has been made over the inspection framework. The document should be designed to facilitate the inspection of Iran's nuclear program.

Iran is suspected by the UN nuclear watchdog to be conducting possible experiments on developing nuclear weapons which Tehran denies, saying that the agency is influenced by misleading intelligence provided by Western spy agencies.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif said in an interview with France 24 TV channel that a deal with the world powers over Iran's nuclear program is "possible" in the upcoming Geneva talks.

Iran and the P5+1 countries, including the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain plus Germany, held a fresh round of talks in Geneva on Oct. 15-16 and agreed to meet again in Geneva on Nov. 7-8.

Zarif also said: "there is a great deal of mistrust in Iran" about the West's approach toward the Islamic republic.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said Tuesday that the policy of pressure ahead of the nuclear negotiations should be abandoned.

"Unfortunately, we still see the two-thronged approach of pressure-negotiation," Afkham said, adding that "The radicals and ill-wishers are active to hinder the progress in the nuclear talks. "

As for the U.S. congress pushes for a new round of sanctions on Iran ahead of the imminent nuclear talks, she said "They want to use sanctions to exert pressure on the talks" but to no avail.

"We can be hopeful and invite them to learn the lessons from the past. The policy of pressure-negotiation has not ended in desired results," she added.

Talking to reporters in her weekly press briefing, Afkham stressed: "Under the new administration, we have taken steps to solve unnecessary (nuclear) crisis in a constructive contraction with the world... Our seriousness should not be interpreted as taking steps under pressure."

Iran has expressed readiness for snap visits of UN inspectors to its nuclear establishments and to reduce the stockpile of its 20 percent enriched uranium. In return, it urges the international community to lift the sanctions against the Islamic republic.