New talks between the United Nations nuclear watchdog and Iran
began Friday, with the IAEA expected to push Tehran to allow its
monitors access to a military base near the capital.
Western powers and Israel suspect Iran
of trying to develop a bomb behind the veil of its civilian nuclear
program, a charge denied by Tehran which says it is developing civilian
atomic power and making medical isotopes.
On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency's chief
inspector Herman Nackaerts and deputy director general Rafael Grossi
were meeting with Iran's
ambassador to the agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh. The IAEA is especially
interested in access to the Parchin military base near Tehran, where it
believes suspicious explosives testing has been carried out.
The agency's chief Yukiya Amano visited Iran
on May 21 after promising talks in Vienna and said afterward that the
two sides were close to a deal that would allow inspectors greater
access to sites, people and documents tied to Iran's
nuclear program.
Earlier this week however, he hinted that a deal might still
be someway off.
"We need to hope that the Structured Approach agreement will
be signed as soon as possible," he said, although he noted that
differences between the parties had "narrowed."
The agency said in a report last month that new satellite
imagery indicated "extensive activities" at the base, which some experts
see as signs of a clean-up.
On Friday, China's President Hu Jintao also called on his
Iranian counterpart during talks in Beijing to be "flexible and
pragmatic" ahead of the Moscow talks, urging him also to cooperate with
the IAEA, state Xinhua news agency reported.