Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

IAEA representatives will visit Iran on Thursday to hold talks in the capital Tehran, Trend news agency reported on Wednesday referring to the Iranian Keyhan newspaper.

According to the newspaper, the IAEA representatives will not be inspecting any facilities in the country, however they are scheduled to meet with Iranian officials.

At first two IAEA representatives were supposed to visit Tehran, however later it was said there should be seven of them.

If the negotiations are successful, the IAEA team might stay in Tehran for a few more days.

The IAEA and Iran earlier agreed to hold further talks on Thursday, December 13.

Besides, Iranian deputy foreign minister for Asia-Pacific affairs Abbas Araqchi said the Islamic Republic is open to talks about the country's nuclear energy program with the world powers should they show goodwill, IRIB reported on Wednesday.

"We have already said that the framework of cooperation should be defined, inspections and cooperation beyond our obligations to the IAEA should be clarified," Araqchi stated, commenting on the upcoming talks between Iran and the IAEA.

Araqchi said that Tehran has already handed its package of proposals to the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US plus Germany) and is waiting for their response.

"Our proposals to the P5+1 are clear and they should respond to us. If they show goodwill, the way is open to talks and to prove their goodwill they can start with the steps we have already said," he added.

On the other hand, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at the press conference in Tehran on Tuesday that the P5+1 need to have a new approach regarding the talks about nuclear program of Iran.

The spokesman underscored that the negotiations have to be carried out through logical approach, and the rights of Iranian people need to be recognized.

"If this happens, then the negotiations can continue. As for the exact time, it will be clarified at a later stage," Mehmanparast said.

Iran and the P5+1 have held several rounds of multifaceted talks mainly focused on Tehran's nuclear energy program.

Speaking about the talks between Iran and the IAEA, Mehmanparast said the agency is responsible for maintaining and preserving the sensitive information that could eventually be leaked to the outside.

The latest leak, published by the Associated Press, showed an Iranian diagram depicting the physics of a nuclear blast, but scientists were quick to refute the purported evidence, citing an elementary mistake, Press TV reported on Tuesday.

"This diagram does nothing more than indicating either slipshod analysis or an amateurish hoax," declared an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

The diagram, which Iran rejected as forged, raised questions about an inquiry being conducted by IAEA inspectors after it emerged as part of a file of intelligence on the Iranian nuclear activities held by the agency.

Iran has strongly rejected the allegations of involvement in non-civilian nuclear activities, emphasizing that numerous IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities have never found any evidence showing that the Islamic Republic's nuclear energy program has been diverted toward military objectives.

Tehran also argued that as a signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Unnamed sources have been quoted by the Guardian in an article on December 10, as saying that Tel Aviv has carried out a series of leaks suggesting that Iran was allegedly involved in military nuclear experiments, in an attempt to mount international pressure against Iran.

According to Press TV, the Western diplomats believe that Israel is behind the leak of information from IAEA in relation to Iran's nuclear program.

European diplomats, however, noted that the principal impact of the leak would be to undermine the IAEA's credibility, mar the agency's ongoing investigation, and endanger its officials.

Washington and its Western allies suspect Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the unilateral western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.