AUSTRIA: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) IS OPTIMISTIC IT CAN REACH AGREEMENT WITH IRAN ON URANIUM ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME

Record ID: 646927

  • Title: AUSTRIA: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) IS OPTIMISTIC IT CAN REACH AGREEMENT WITH IRAN ON URANIUM ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME
  • Date: 26th November 2004
  • Summary: (W4) VIENNA, AUSTRIA (NOVEMBER 26) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE VIEW OF MEETING ROOM 0.06 2. CLOSE OF KOREAN DELEGATE SEATED AT DESK 0.11 3. VARIOUS OF MOHAMED ELBARADEI, HEAD OF IAEA ,INSIDE BOARD ROOM GREETING DELEGATES 0.28 4. WIDE OF DELEGATES IN MEETING ROOM 0.33 5. VARIOUS OF KOREAN DELEGATE GREETING OTHER DELEGATES 0.47 6. PAN OF JOURNALISTS WAITING OUTSIDE IAEA MEETING ROOM 0.56 7. CLOSEUP OF SIGN OUTSIDE MEETING ROOM 1.00 8. SCU SOUNDBITE (English) HOSSEIN MOUSAVIAN, IRAN'S CHIEF DELEGATE TO IAEA, SAYING: "The most important issues which we are discussing with EU is practically four issues - one issue is about the suspension. We have emphasised the suspension to be for confidence building, not as a legal obligation. And, the second important issue is about the trigger. We believe in the first draft of the EU there were some hidden triggers which with the latest draft there has been some developments. They have changed the wording a little bit, but this is not still appropriate for us. The other thing we have principally emphasised is that further activities of the IAEA should be in the framework of safeguard and protocol. And, we have to make it very clear in the resolution that the basis for further activities by the IAEA is protocol and safeguard. And the last issue is that Iran's issue should not be on the agenda of IAEA anymore." 2.38 9. SCU (REPORTER QUESTION ABOUT DISAGREEMENTS) "No, no. We have good progress ... we have good progress in our negotiation and we have to have the next sessions of negotiation." 2.52 10. WIDE OF DELEGATES INSIDE IAEA BOARD ROOM 2.56 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 11th December 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VIENNA, AUSTRIA
  • Country: Austria
  • Reuters ID: LVA7L6GO53JEZN7L8LNCG6BAGO3J
  • Story Text: IAEA optimistic it can reach agreement with Iran on
    uranium enrichment suspension



    Iran will honour its pledge to the EU to freeze
    its uranium enrichment programme, which could be used to
    make nuclear weapons, Tehran's chief delegate to the United
    Nations nuclear watchdog said on Friday (November 26).

    "We are fully committed to a suspension of enrichment
    and related activities," Hossein Mousavian told Reuters on
    the second day of an International Atomic Energy Agency
    (IAEA) board meeting devoted to Iran and South Korea's
    nuclear violations.

    Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium for use as
    fuel in power plants or, when very highly enriched, in
    weapons.

    But the ink on the hard-won EU-Iran suspension
    agreement -- which Tehran accepted to escape a report to
    the U.N. Security Council and possible economic sanctions
    -- was barely dry when Tehran threatened to wreck it with a
    demand to exempt some 20 enrichment centrifuges for
    research purposes.

    Western diplomats in Vienna said the request to amend
    the terms of the freeze infuriated not only the European
    Union but also Washington, which despite Iranian denials
    has long accused Tehran of trying to build an atomic bomb.

    "They (the EU) are concerned it would be used for
    enrichment," Mousavian said, adding that the agreement with
    the Europeans did not cover centrifuge research and
    development. "Definitely we are not going to use it for
    enrichment."
    Iran says it wants to use nuclear power solely for
    peaceful purposes, and denies U.S. accusations that its
    civilian programme is a cover for building a bomb.

    Centrifuges spin at supersonic speed to enrich, or
    purify, uranium for use in nuclear reactors. If enriched to
    a very high degree, it can be used in a nuclear weapon.

    IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters he hoped
    Tehran would rethink the idea once there was an agreement
    on the text of a draft IAEA resolution on Iran's nuclear
    programme.

    "I hope now once we get an agreed resolution that also
    they (Iran) would revisit this issue," ElBaradei told
    reporters.

    ElBaradei said on Thursday (November 25) before the
    IAEA meeting began that Iran's 18-year concealment of its
    enrichment programme had undermined international
    confidence in the Islamic state.

    Mousavian said the Iranian delegation was in talks with
    France, Britain, Germany and the IAEA to resolve the
    centrifuge dispute. Asked if he believed the Europeans and
    Iranians would reach an agreement, Mousavian said: "I'm
    optimistic."
    Mousavian, head of the foreign policy committee of
    Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said a new draft
    IAEA resolution circulated by France, Britain and Germany
    was unacceptable to Iran though it was an improvement over
    the original text.

    "Out of two or three rounds of negotiations over the
    draft we have had some progress," he said.

    Washington wanted the text to include an "automatic
    trigger" that would refer Iran to the Security Council if
    it resumed any enrichment-related work.

    The latest EU draft, obtained by Reuters, still calls
    on Iran to sustain the suspension of enrichment and
    plutonium reprocessing activities, but showed that the EU
    has tried to meet the Iranian demands.

    A clause that Iran felt was an indirect trigger was
    removed, while a demand that Iran provide "unrestricted
    access" to the IAEA was changed to cover only access to
    sites declared to the IAEA under its Additional Protocol on
    short-notice inspections.

    Diplomats said Washington was unhappy with both the
    EU-Iran deal and the latest draft resolution, but would not
    block them.

    They said Washington would revisit the idea of
    referring Iran to the Security Council -- which U.S.

    officials say is the only proper forum for what they see as
    a major international security issue -- when the IAEA board
    meets again in March.


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