Iran nuke program progressing despite sanctions, IAEA chief says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran is making "steady progress" in expanding its nuclear program despite international sanctions that do not seem to be slowing it down, the U.N. nuclear agency chief told Reuters on Monday, June 17, the news agency reported.

Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also said he remained committed to dialogue with Iran to address concerns of possible military dimensions to its nuclear activity. But no new meeting had yet been set after 10 rounds of talks since early 2012, he said.

"There is a steady increase of capacity and production" in Iran's nuclear program, Amano said in an interview.

Asked if tightening sanctions - imposed by Western powers to make the Islamic Republic curb its atomic activity - were slowing down Iran's nuclear work, he said: "I don't think so ... I don't see any impact."

He spoke shortly after Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani pledged, during a news conference in Tehran, to be more transparent about Iran's nuclear program in order to see sanctions lifted.

But Rouhani also said Tehran was not ready to suspend its enrichment of uranium, which the West fears is aimed at producing a nuclear weapons capability - something Iran denies.