Amano: IAEA favours dialogue with Iran

The IAEA will continue the dialogue with Iran on its nuclear dossier, IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano said. Speaking at the 3rd IAEA International High-Level Conference in St Petersburg on Thursday, Amano said the dialogue “cannot be held endlessly and our purpose is to make sure that Iran’s nuclear programme pursues peaceful goals.” Amino said the decision on Iran’s nuclear programme “is in competence of the IAEA Board of Governors”. “My task is to collect information and submit it to the IAEA Board of Governors,” he stressed, adding that the IAEA worked on this issue as the unique mechanism. Amano recalled that the IAEA had adopted two resolutions on this issue in November 2011 and in September 2012. “At present, we inform the Board of Governors on the implementation of the resolutions, especially the second resolution, which calls for stepping up the work with Iran,” the IAEA director-general said. Commenting on if the IAEA position changes on the Iranian nuclear dossier after a new president comes to power, Amano said, “Our position will be as it is with the previous president.” “Naturally, we’ll continue the dialogue with the country and it will be aimed at achieving concrete results,” he added.