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Iran blames IAEA's "remote control" for fruitless negotiations

07-03-2013

VIENNA, (Xinhua): Iran on Wednesday said Tehran and UN nuclear agency failed to make any substantial agreement on the nuclear inspection framework thanks to the lack of full authority of the agency's negotiation team.

"The source of the problem was not giving the full authority to the team," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told reporters after his one-hour speech in the board meeting of IAEA.

He said the "remote control" from the agency's headquarters made the talk fruitless, as they could not finalize the structured approach and come to agreement.

Soltanieh said the team was asked to suspend the talk by the headquarters when they were supposed to reach an agreement in the second day's talk in Tehran for the last round of meeting in February.

"After one day's intensive discussion, both side came to conclusion that there is only one paragraph which we have to work on it," Soltanieh stressed.

He said Tehran should not be held responsible for the failure of the talks between the agency and Iran.

Regarding access to the controversial Parchin military site which is suspected by the IAEA of being the site where Iran conducted explosive tests, Soltanieh said Iran had not disagreed to give access to Parchin, which he said showcased Tehran's determination, political will and transparency over the issue.

But "we can not just open any military sites without any criteria," he added.

IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano on Monday hinted that the structured approach should not be an excuse for Iran to block access to the Parchin site, and demanded full access to the site.


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-03/07/c_132213975.htm

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