Tehran: UN nuclear watchdog director Mohamed ElBaradei today arrived in Tehran on his first visit in over one-and-a-half years aimed at resolving outstanding questions over Iran's contested nuclear programme. ElBaradei is expected to meet officials including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's atomic energy organisation chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, and possibly supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

His visit comes amid talks between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran aimed at resolving questions over the history of the Iranian nuclear programme, which the West fears could be diverted to weapons use. Accompanied by IAEA deputy director general Olli Heinonen, ElBaradei declined to make any comment on arriving in Tehran, dismissing questions with a wave of the hand, an AFP correspondent reported.

He hopes the visit will help in "resolving all remaining outstanding issues and enabling the agency to provide assurance about Iran s past and present nuclear activities," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said this week. Despite a four year probe into Tehran s atomic drive, the IAEA has never been unable to confirm whether the programme is peaceful. But it has also found no evidence to back Western claims Iran has sought atomic weapons.

A recent US intelligence report said Iran halted a nuclear weapons programme in 2003,undermining repeated accusations from US President George W Bush that Tehran was actively seeking the atomic bomb. The report appears to have momentarily taken the heat out of the atomic crisis but Washington still wants UN Security Council to adopt a third set of sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme.

Source : PTI