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IAEA flagReuters

A new UN probe of allegations that Iran worked on nuclear weapons has stalled, according to diplomats, leaving investigators not much further than where they started a decade ago and diminishing US hopes of reaching deal with Tehran by the November deadline that had been set, according to a report by Fox News.

Two weeks ago, chief UN nuclear inspector Yukiya Amano came out of talks in Tehran with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, with the belief that Iran had given "a firm commitment" to cooperation, and suggesting that the years of deadlock had been broken.

However, two diplomats told the Associated Press that the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) would be issuing a confidential report this week stating that Iran had not yet provided the promised information to advance the probe, a finding that could affect talks between Iran and six major powers.

The IAEA inquiry is formally separate from the US-led talks, but Washington says a successful IAEA investigation must be part of any final deal. That now seems unlikely to take place by the November 24 deadline. Iran had agreed to start a new probe after the past 10 years of deadlock, insisting that the 1,000 pages of allegations against them were based on falsified intelligence from the US and Israel.

The diplomats, who have only agreed to speak under conditions of anonymity, said Iranian officials have dismissed the IAEA’s requests to interview those suspected of involvement in the alleged experiments, saying that this could expose scientists to assassination attempts by Israel.