IAEA team heads to Iran

VIENNA — Senior United Nations nuclear inspectors headed to Tehran yesterday to press Iranian officials to address suspicions that the country is seeking atomic weapons.

The UN International Atomic Energy Agency hopes Iran, which has indicated readiness to discuss the issue for the first time since 2008, will end years of stonewalling on intelligence pointing to an intention to develop nuclear arms technology.

“We are trying... to resolve all the outstanding issues with Iran, in particular we hope that Iran will engage with us on our concerns regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme,” IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts told reporters as he prepared to depart from Vienna airport.

But Western diplomats, who have often accused Iran of using such offers of dialogue as a stalling tactic while it presses ahead with its nu- clear programme, say they doubt Tehran will show the kind of concrete co-operation the IAEA wants.

They say Iran may offer limited concessions and transparency in an attempt to ease intensifying international pressure on the country, a major oil producer, but that this is unlikely to amount to the full co-operation that is required.

The outcome could determine whether Iran will face further international isolation, or whether there are prospects for resuming wider talks between Tehran and the major powers on the nuclear dispute that has sparked fears of war.

\The US and its allies suspect the programme has military aims but Tehran says is for peaceful electricity generation.

“The chances of the IAEA’S success may depend on how badly Iran wants to avoid harder sanctions,” said nuclear expert Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. — Reuters