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Iran Focus  Tehran, Iran, May 11 – A "technical delegation" from the United Nations nuclear watchdog will told a new round of talks with Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday, the official news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.
Herman Nackaerts, the director for safeguards operations at the International Atomic Energy Agency, will lead the delegation and hold talks with Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh. The talks will last for three days, the report said. The two sides also met ten days ago. Iran presented a package of nuclear proposals to the West on Friday in a bid to counter a similar offer to be made by major world powers to Tehran to convince it to abandon its controversial nuclear activities. The package was said to include "scientific and executive proposals on political, security, economic, and nuclear issues". Iran's envoys to the United Kingdom and Japan have announced that the Iranian package not forgo Iran's right to enrich uranium, which is a key demand of the successive United Nations Security Council resolutions. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed that the Islamic Republic would resist UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear work. World powers agreed earlier this month in London to offer Iran a "refreshed" package of incentives to convince it to halt enrichment and come to the negotiating table. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad-Ali Hosseini, said on Sunday that Tehran would not consider any package or proposal “violating” its “rights”. The Security Council voted in March to impose a third set of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to halt its suspected nuclear weapons activity. A European-sponsored resolution was adopted at the 15-member Council by 14 votes in favour, none opposed, and one abstention from Indonesia. Resolution 1803 increased the mild trade bans in effect on Iran to include certain goods with both civilian and military uses. Under the new sanctions, certain Iranian companies and banks will have their accounts frozen, and goods entering and leaving Iran must be subjected to inspections. The Security Council previously imposed two sets of milder sanctions on Tehran in December 2006 and March 2007 over its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment activities which the West suspects is part of a nuclear weapons program. |
