U.N. chemical watchdog meeting on Iran commences in Vienna

Top officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency will assess Iran’s compliance with a previously agreed six-month nuclear freeze on Monday.

The freeze was agreed under an interim deal with international powers last November.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said negotiations were “going well,” on Thursday.

"I'm hoping by the first deadline (July 20) we will reach an agreement," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday.

Rouhani confirmed that despite "thousands of hours" of inspection, the U.N.’s atomic watchdog failed to find evidence of military objectives in Iran's nuclear drive.

The IAEA said Iran was sticking to the agreed nuclear freeze in a report that came out a month after enforcing the deal. It added that uranium enrichment to medium levels “is no longer taking place.”

Iran will hold expert-level talks with several international powers on the sidelines of the IAEA’s Board of Governors second official meeting this year.

International powers including the UK, China, France, Russia, the U.S. and Germany have been seeking to reach a lasting agreement relieve Western concerns on Iran’s nuclear activities which are suspected to have military purposes.

Iran insists that its nuclear program has no such objectives.