IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. Photo: wiki commons.

Nuclear talks with Iran are “going around in circles,” the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday in unusually frank statements regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

Addressing the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors, Yukiya Amano said: “Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable us to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities. The Agency therefore cannot conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

He also said Iranian advances in building a heavy-water reactor and in its uranium enrichment work were in “clear contravention” of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Amano said that “despite the intensified dialogue between the Agency and Iran since January 2012, during which time ten rounds of talks have been held, no agreement has been reached on the structured approach document.”

“This is not the right way to address issues of such great importance to the international community, including Iran. We need to achieve concrete results without further delay to restore international confidence in the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities,” he added.