IAEA officials arrives in Iran for co-op talks

TEHRAN - Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials on bilateral cooperation, Press TV reported on Saturday.

IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of Department of Safeguards Tero Tapio Varjoranta and two other officials arrived in Tehran on Friday, Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) was quoted as saying. ?

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA Reza Najafi and Tapio Varjoranta will preside over the talks Saturday, which aims to determine the next step of cooperation between the two sides, Press TV reported.

Kamalvandi said the talks will focus on Iran's "voluntary cooperation" to clarify the ambiguities the UN nuclear watchdog has raised.

The meeting is expected to run for one day and can be extended if the two sides wish to continue their negotiations, Kamalvandi was quoted as saying.

Inspectors of the IAEA visited Iran's Gachin yellow cake mine in the south in January 2014 and the Arak heavy water production plant in December 2013. The inspection was in line with the implementation of an agreement signed between head of the AEOI Ali- Akbar Salehi and IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano in Tehran on Nov 11, 2013.