Iran Nuclear Back Down
October 21, 2003
Reuters
Parisa Hafezi and Dominic Evans
Iran has agreed to snap inspections of its nuclear sites and to freeze uranium enrichment in what visiting EU foreign ministers have hailed as a promising start to removing doubts about Tehran's atomic aims.
But a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday Tehran would only halt uranium enrichment -- seen by Washington as the core of a possible bid for nuclear arms -- for as long as it saw fit.
British, French and German foreign ministers, who flew to Tehran with a carrot and stick approach aimed at convincing Iran to comply with an October 31 U.N. deadline to prove it has no atomic bomb ambitions, greeted the agreement as an important step forward rather than a breakthrough.
"It's been an important day's work but you can only judge its significance in time and through implementation," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters just before leaving the country after a series talks with Iranian officials.
The three European Union countries, taking a different approach to Washington's more inflexible stance towards Iran, recognised Iran's right to develop a nuclear energy programme and held out the prospect of technical help with it in future.
SIGN PROTOCOL BY NOVEMBER 20
Iran's Supreme National Security Council chief said Tehran would probably sign the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on virtually unfettered, snap inspections before the November 20 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board.
According to the declaration agreed on in Tehran, Iran also agreed to implement the protocol before it has been ratified.
But Rohani was non-committal on how long Iran would maintain the freeze on uranium enrichment activities.
"It could last for one day or one year, it depends on us," he said. "As long as Iran thinks that this suspension is beneficial for us it will continue and whenever we don't want it we will end it."
Enriched uranium can be used to fuel reactors but if enriched further, can be used in warheads.
The IAEA has found arms-grade enriched uranium at two facilities in Iran this year. Iran blames the findings on contamination from parts it bought abroad on the black market.
Experts said the Tehran agreement, while a positive step, did not mean Iran was in the clear.
"Iran is responding and I think it calls for the U.S. to at least rethink its isolationist policy for Iran," former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright told Reuters.
But he added: "A freeze is good, but what we need is a halt to the uranium enrichment programme if there is going to be a solution to this crisis," said Albright, now president of the Institute for Science and International Security.
AN IMPORTANT DAY
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told a news conference: "We have achieved this morning important progress and we found a basis for agreement on the three pending issues."
These were: immediate signature and early implementation of additional protocol; full cooperation with the IAEA and suspension of all uranium enrichment.
According to the Tehran declaration, the EU ministers in turn recognised Iran's right to develop a civilian nuclear energy programme and held out the prospect of "easier access to modern technology and supplies in a range of areas".
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said: "This is an important day... This agreement is opening a serious process to resolve the nuclear issue between Iran and the international community."
But a Western diplomat in Vienna said it might not be enough to prevent a negative report by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in November. "This doesn't mean it's over by a long shot," he said.
ElBaradei has warned Iran's case could be sent to the U.N. Security Council if he cannot verify by November that Tehran has no secret nuclear arms programme.
In a sign that Tuesday's agreement will not meet with universal acceptance in Iran, where hardliners accuse the IAEA of being Washington's puppet, nearly 100 students gathered outside the palace complex where the meetings took place.
"Shame on your hypocrisy, imperialist ambassadors," read one banner, while a poster called on Iran to follow North Korea's example and pull out of the nuclear NPT altogether.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=391666§ion=news