TEHRAN - The International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report on Iran’s nuclear program can be regarded as a step forward, Iran’s permanent envoy to the agency has said.

Commenting on International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano’s report on Iran’s nuclear program, which was issued on Friday, in an interview with the Fars News Agency in Vienna later on the same day, Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said, “Amano’s report contains positive points, which were not mentioned in previous reports. Thus this issue is a step forward.” 

The report said that Amano had held some meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Director Fereydoun Abbasi in Vienna, Soltanieh noted. 

It also mentioned that the IAEA deputy director general had traveled to Iran and visited the country’s nuclear facilities, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant, the Natanz and Fordo nuclear facilities, and other nuclear sites, and this is sign of Iran’s transparent cooperation with the agency, he stated.

He went on to say that the report showed that certain misunderstandings over Iran’s nuclear activities have been cleared up, and he noted that the inspections of the country’s centrifuge research centers have proven that Iran’s nuclear activities are peaceful.

The report also mentioned Iran’s nuclear achievements, including the production of 4,543 kilos of low-enriched uranium and 70.8 kilos of 20 percent enriched uranium, he added.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the IAEA said Iran has begun deploying second-generation centrifuges at its largest uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, which could allow the country to produce nuclear fuel at three times the current rate.

The agency confirmed recent statements by Iranian officials, who said that Tehran had begun deploying more advanced centrifuges at the Natanz facility. The IAEA said its inspectors confirmed that newer machines, called the IR-2m and the IR-4, have been installed at the Natanz facility and that some have begun spinning the uranium gas used to produce nuclear fuel.

The IAEA also reported that Iran had begun installing centrifuges to produce higher-enriched uranium at a facility in Fordo. Iranian officials have said they eventually plan to transfer all of the country’s production of 20 percent enriched uranium to Fordo and triple output.