Iran has invited an International Atomic Energy Agency team to Tehran to draw up a concrete plan for clearing up suspicions about its nuclear plans, an IAEA spokeswoman stated Monday. According to the AP, Melissa Fleming said the invitation was issued by Ali Larijani, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator, on Sunday during talks with IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei.
"Dr. Larijani invited the IAEA to send a team to Tehran to develop an action plan for resolving outstanding issues related to Iran's past nuclear program," Fleming said in a statement. "The IAEA intends to send a team as early as practicable."
The talks Sunday were apparently agreed on short notice and came just a day after Larijani met with top EU foreign policy envoy Javier Solana for talks. Larijani and ElBaradei had already met Friday and the IAEA chief said afterward that Tehran was prepared to follow up on that offer by working out a concrete timetable with his agency's experts on coming up with the answers sought by the U.N. nuclear agency.
Iran has said before that it was ready to cooperate with the IAEA on the issue of unexplained past activities that could be linked to a nuclear weapons program but has yet to deliver.
