VIENNA, April 7: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, will visit Iran next week as Tehran continues its standoff with the United Nations over its nuclear programme, a diplomat with the agency said on Friday.

“The IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei will be travelling to Tehran to meet senior officials for discussions related to outstanding safeguard verification issues and other confidence-building measures requested by the IAEA board of governors,” the diplomat said.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors arrived in Iran on Friday to visit the country’s uranium enrichment facility and other sites to establish whether these are part of a strictly civilian nuclear power generation project or whether they are part of a military programme, as the United States and the European Union fear.

The UN Security Council, in a non-binding statement, called on Iran on March 29 to suspend all its enrichment-related activities in 30 days — a move promptly rejected by Tehran.

The diplomat did not say on what day Mr ElBaradei would go to Iran.

“This visit will provide Iran an opportunity ... to come forward with information required by the IAEA to fill in the gaps in the history of Iran’s nuclear activities,” he said.

“He’s not going there to negotiate any settlement. His going there is part of an ongoing verification process and this requires face-to-face contact,” the diplomat added.—AFP