Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Ahead of the nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers International Atomic Energy Agency representatives will again visit Tehran on Wednesday, to hold another set of nuclear talks with Iran, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's Ambassador to the IAEA, announced.

Soltanieh's announcement came in an interview with Iran's Arabic-language news channel al-Alam on Monday.

Iran and the IAEA last met in Tehran on January 17-18.

Last week, Soltanieh held a briefing about Iran's nuclear energy program for the ambassadors of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries to the IAEA's Board of Governors in Vienna.

He said another briefing would be arranged after an upcoming meeting between Iranian and IAEA representatives.

Besides, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that Iran is ready to respond to any claim, concern or ambiguity regarding its nuclear program, Press TV reported.

"Iran and IAEA have this clear transparent network, a legal one, that we try to stick to," Mehmanparast said. "The visits are being made to nuclear sites, all nuclear activity is under supervision."

Mehmanparast said that all of the concerns that there are about Iran's nuclear program refer to possible future activities.

"In the past we have responded to all claims and concerns," he said, adding that Iran sticks to the NPT treaty.

However, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereydoun Abbasi Davani said on Tuesday that the IAEA doesn't have enough security to prevent a leakage of sensitive information, so, Tehran's involvement in talks about the probable military diminution of the country's nuclear program is a "great compensation" to the IAEA, Trend news agency reported.

"This is compensation for the IAEA to raise its international position, but they should avoid asking Iran sensitive questions, because their system is not secure," Abbasi said.

Iran and the IAEA seek to finalize a structured framework that could outline the cooperation between the two sides.

The IAEA wants to revisit Parchin, a military site southeast of Tehran, to probe Western and Israeli allegations that the site is linked to Iran's nuclear energy program.

Iran has rejected the allegation of nuclear activities being carried out at Parchin pointing out that it is technically impossible to clean up places where nuclear work has been done.

Iran has allowed the IAEA to inspect the site twice in the past. Tehran says any new agency inspection must be governed by an agreement that lays out the scope of such a visit.

Talks between Iran and P5+1 group

This month also the meeting between Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US plus Germany) will be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on February 26 in order to strike a common ground.

Iran and the world powers of the P5+1group will discuss the proposals made by Russia and the European Union about Tehran's nuclear energy program at the upcoming talks, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in an interview with RIA Novosti in Moscow on Monday.

Salehi is in Moscow to attend the 10th annual meeting of the Russian-Iranian Business Council (RIBC).

Salehi said "Iran announced last year that it has drafted a five-point plan according to the proposals presented by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in 2011."

On July 14, 2012, Lavrov laid out a new "step-by-step" approach that would enable Iran to take steps to address the questions raised by the IAEA regarding its nuclear energy program.

According to the plan, Iran can revive negotiations to allay the concerns of the IAEA about its nuclear activities and be rewarded along the way by a partial removal of sanctions.

"Last month, however, the EU drafted and announced a separate three-stage plan," Salehi added.

The Iranian foreign minister said both plans would be discussed during the upcoming meeting between Iran and IAEA.

Besides, member of Iran's negotiating team with P5+1 group Mostafa Dolatyar said that at the upcoming nuclear meeting in Kazakstan, Iran will listen to the proposals of the opposing side, ISNA reported.

However, Dolatyar noted that thus far the Iranian side has not received any formal proposals from the P5+1 group members.

"We were supposed to receive new proposals," Dolatyar said. "Later it turned out the proposals were very much the same as we received from P5+1 during the talks in Moscow."

He noted that Iran will reply to the prepositions of the P5+1 group based on what is being proposed.

The last round of the negotiations between Iran and P5+1 was held in Moscow in June 2012.

The U.S., a number of other Western countries and Israel suspect Iran of developing nuclear weapons under the guise of a peaceful nuclear program. Tehran denies the allegations, saying it has every right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.