Iran on Monday issued the needed permission for the International Atomic Energy Agency to start inspection of its heavy water reactor in Arak and Gachin Uranium Mine near the Southern city of Bandar Abbas, FNA reported.

Iran on Monday issued the needed permission for the International Atomic Energy Agency to start inspection of its heavy water reactor in Arak and Gachin Uranium Mine near the Southern city of Bandar Abbas, two bones of contention in Iran-IAEA debates in recent years, FNA reported.

“This voluntary move was adopted by the permission of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to show Iran’s good will, (otherwise) Iran does not have any such duty on the basis of the safeguards undertakings,” Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters after a meeting with IAEA Chief Yukiya Amano in Tehran on Monday.

He said that the permission was issued after Iran and the IAEA agreed on a road map for cooperation and the Iranian government’s new approach to voluntarily increase cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Salehi added that Iran has also issued the permission for the IAEA to visit its Gachin Uranium Mine in Southern Iran.

Arak heavy water reactor uses natural uranium to produce radio medicines and it is planned to replace the Tehran research reactor gradually. The reactor is resistant to strong blasts as well as 8-magnitude earthquakes.

Salehi made the remarks after meeting IAEA Chief Yukiya Amano who arrived in Tehran early Monday to hold talks with Iranian officials on a “new framework for cooperation” between the two sides.

The IAEA’s press office said last week that Amano would arrive in Tehran on Monday at the invitation of Salehi to hold talks with senior Iranian officials with the aim of “strengthening dialog and cooperation between the two sides".

In relevant remarks on Sunday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Sayyed Abbas Araqchi underlined that Iran and the IAEA are due to consider a new framework for continued cooperation.

“The finalization of this new framework of cooperation is in the final stages,” he told reporters in Tehran yesterday.

Araqchi expressed the hope that the new framework of cooperation would be signed by the two sides during Amano’s visit to Iran.

Last week, Salehi said, "I have invited Mr. Amano to pay an official visit to Tehran on November 11."

"We hope that during Amano's visit both sides would discuss relevant (Iran-IAEA) issues and make a joint statement afterwards," Salehi underlined.

Late in October, after two days of talks, Iran and the IAEA inked a new agreement based on which both sides are committed to pursue the settlement of Tehran's nuclear case at the UN body.

During the second round of their talks at the time, Iran and the IAEA reached a new accord which would replace the previous frameworks.

The new agreement was the most important achievement of the two-day talks in Vienna.

On October 29, a senior diplomat close to the Iranian team of negotiators with the IAEA revealed that Tehran has submitted new proposals to the IAEA in its talks with the UN nuclear watchdog.