As efforts to restore the nation's nuclear accord fail, the head of Iran's nuclear agency announced on Saturday that he will meet with the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog next week.
Iran's leading nuclear negotiator Mohammad Eslami said on state television, "I will travel to Austria to engage in the annual general session of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, where I will meet with Director General Rafael Grossi.
The annual conference of the Vienna-based IAEA is held this year from September 26 to 30.
At the beginning of the month, the UN monitor declared that it was "not in a position to provide confidence that Iran's nuclear programme is entirely peaceful."
It has been pressing for answers on the presence of nuclear material at three undeclared sites and the issue led to a resolution that criticised Iran being passed at a June meeting of the IAEA’s board of governors.
The three sites represent a key sticking point in negotiations to restore a tattered 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
Those negotiations began in Vienna in April 2021 but have repeatedly stalled.
The US walked out of the original deal under then president Donald Trump in 2018 and re-imposed biting sanctions, provoking Tehran into incrementally stepping back from its nuclear commitments.
Iran has repeatedly said it wants the IAEA to drop its interest in the three sites — a position that the nuclear watchdog says lacks credibility.
“I hope that my talks will put an end… to the false accusations about certain (nuclear) sites stemming from political pressure and psychological operations exerted against Iran,” Eslami added.
In a speech at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi re-iterated his country’s long held insistence that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon.