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Gold9472
08-22-2007, 06:33 PM
Iran, IAEA agree ways to defuse atom suspicions

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldnews&storyID=2007-08-22T000207Z_01_BLA130290_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-NUCLEAR.xml

By Fredrik Dahl and Edmund Blair
8/22/2007

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday they had agreed on a plan on how to help defuse Western suspicions about Tehran's atom work, a move hailed as a "milestone" by a senior IAEA official.

After two days of talks in Tehran, the two sides said they had drawn up a timeline for answering outstanding questions about Iran's nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at building atomic bombs. Iran insists its plans are peaceful.

But the United States, leading efforts to isolate Iran, has said Tehran must both cooperate with the U.N. inspectors and halt sensitive nuclear work, a step Iranian officials have rejected, if it wants to avoid a third round of U.N. sanctions.

"We have in front of us an agreed work plan. We agreed on modalities on how to implement it. We have a timeline for the implementation," IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen said after the negotiations, which he described as "good and constructive."

"I think this was an important milestone," he told a press conference. "But this process will take its time."

Iran agreed in June to draw up an action plan within 60 days to grant more access to its nuclear sites for inspectors of the Vienna-based IAEA and clear up longstanding agency questions about the nature and scope of the program.

The U.N. body has long complained that Iran has stonewalled its inquiries into the murky history and scope of Tehran's nuclear activities and curbed inspector movements, preventing the agency from giving Tehran a clean bill of health.

Heinonen said work would start swiftly on implementing Tuesday's agreement, with activities later this month as well as in September and October. Details of the deal would be included in a report for the IAEA board by early September.

"WE ARE SERIOUS"
"We have a basic framework of agreement between Iran and the agency," Iranian deputy nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi told the joint news conference, saying talks yielded "great results," according to a translation of his words by Iran's PRESS TV.

"We are serious about implementing this," Vaeedi said.

In Washington, the State Department said the agreement was "insufficient" and does not bring Iran in line with demands by the U.N. Security Council to halt uranium enrichment, or face more penalties.

"Given Iran's failure to fulfill its U.N. Security Council requirement to immediately and verifiably suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, we believe the U.N. Security Council must move forward as soon as possible with additional sanctions," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said in a statement.

"... 'Plans' for cooperation are no substitution for actual cooperation and Iran's actions in the coming weeks will speak louder than its words," Gallegos said.

The latest discussions had been due to tackle some of the thorniest issues such as the origin of traces of highly enriched -- or bomb-grade -- uranium found on some equipment and the status of research into advanced centrifuges used in enrichment.

Iran and the IAEA previously met in July and earlier this month. After the July talks, Tehran allowed U.N. inspectors to revisit the Arak heavy-water reactor, which is under construction. Tehran had cut off access in April in protest at U.N. sanctions.

The United Nations has imposed two sets of sanctions since December because of Iran's failure to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can make fuel for power plants or bomb material.

Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, says it wants to generate nuclear electricity and save oil and gas for export.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made clear again his country would not bow to pressure and stop enrichment.

"The enemies are not able anymore to cause obstacles for Iran's developments in the nuclear issue," he said in Ardebil, northwest Iran, the Fars News Agency reported.

Gold9472
08-22-2007, 09:20 PM
U.S.: Iran Cooperation Insufficient

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6869611,00.html

By GEORGE JAHN
Thursday August 23, 2007 12:16 AM

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran's willingness to answer questions about its nuclear program will not save it from new U.N. sanctions, a U.S. envoy said Wednesday, describing Tehran's new openness as an attempt to deflect "attention from its ... bomb-making capabilities.''

The remark by Gregory L. Schulte, chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, drew criticism from some diplomats, who suggested that Washington was trying to derail important progress in the Iranian nuclear negotiations in its drive to impose new U.N. penalties.

The IAEA's 35-nation board will meet next month to discuss Iran, and the conflicting views suggest the meeting could see Washington and its closest allies clash with countries less hawkish on Iran.

Iran and the Vienna-based IAEA - the U.N. nuclear watchdog - said Tuesday they had agreed on a timetable for Tehran to respond to lingering questions over its controversial nuclear activities.

In response to the announcement, Schulte accused Tehran of "clearly trying to take the attention from its continued development of bomb-making capabilities.''

"I don't think the (U.N.) Security Council will be distracted,'' Schulte said. "We are continuing to move forward with other members of the Security Council on a third resolution.''

"If Iran's leaders truly want the world's trust, they would ... start to cooperate fully and unconditionally and suspend activities of international concern,'' Schulte said, alluding to council demands that Tehran freeze its uranium enrichment program and stop construction of a plutonium-producing reactor.

"These activities are not necessary for peaceful purposes, but are necessary to build a bomb,'' he said.

Iranian and IAEA officials did not say Tuesday whether Tehran was ready to answer all outstanding questions about its nuclear program. But Schulte suggested it was not.

"We understand there are real limitations with the plan,'' he said, including Iran's refusal to implement an agreement allowing IAEA inspectors broad powers to conduct inspections of suspicious sites on short notice.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the United States believed the council "must move forward as soon as possible with additional sanctions.''

Two diplomats and a U.N. official familiar with the Iran-IAEA timetable disagreed, however, saying substantial progress was being made in lifting the veil of Iran's nuclear secrecy. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

"This appears to be a deliberate (U.S.) campaign to derail the process,'' said one of the diplomats. "It is dangerous to dismiss it before even having seen the details.''

In Azerbaijan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also demanded that other countries respect its right to produce atomic energy and said nothing had been achieved by trying to stop its program - criticisms apparently directed at the United States.

"Our aim in developing nuclear technology is the improvement of the well-being and living standards of our people,'' Ahmadinejad said during a visit to the former Soviet republic.

Without naming any nations, he said "certain forces ... want to deprive our people of this right. They resort to any methods - economic, psychological and military pressure. But despite this, they have achieved nothing. Iran has legally created nuclear technology.''

Iran has refused to answer questions about secret plutonium experiments in the mid-1990s and IAEA findings that Iran has not accounted for all the plutonium it has said it possessed. IAEA experts also want to know more about unexplained traces of plutonium and enriched uranium found last year at a nuclear waste facility, and about the so-called Green Salt Project.

Diplomats told The Associated Press last year that the agency was trying to follow up on U.S. intelligence that described the project as linking uranium enrichment-related experiments to nuclear-related high explosives and warhead design.

Iran dismissed that intelligence as "based on false and fabricated documents.''