The head of Iran's nuclear agency said Tuesday that despite U.S. sanctions and efforts to isolate his country, Japan remains willing to continue cooperating with it on nuclear safety.

Japan "insisted that under any circumstance they would like to continue their operation in the domain of safety," Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said during an interview on the sidelines of a seminar in Brussels.

Officials from both sides met each other as recently as a few weeks ago, the former foreign minister said, while noting that Japan has already hosted training programs for Iranian scientists on safeguards and nuclear safety.