* IAEA “back to square one” after several rounds of Iran
talks
* Ending deadlock may depend on progress in big power
diplomacy
* West suspects clean-up at site U.N. inspectors want to see
* Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons capability
By Fredrik Dahl
VIENNA, July 15 (Reuters) – Offering immunity or an easing
of the sanctions pressure may be the only way – if there is one
at all – to coax Iran to end years of stonewalling a U.N.
watchdog investigation into suspected nuclear weapons research
in the Islamic state.
Any such initiative would likely need to come from world
powers as part of a broader diplomatic thrust to defuse the
dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme, leaving the investigation
by the U.N. atomic agency dependent on how those talks develop.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has failed in
a series of high-profile rounds of discussions in the last six
months to persuade Tehran to give it access to sites, officials
and documents it says it needs for the long-stalled inquiry.
The roller-coaster negotiations have underlined the IAEA’s
limited power to make Iran cooperate with it, suggesting Tehran
will do so only if it gets something in return elsewhere and
fuelling Western suspicions that it is playing for time.
Continued…
