Iran Wants IAEA OK to Operate Centrifuges During Suspension of Uranium Enrichment Activities

Iranian officials have asked the International Atomic Energy Agency for the right to maintain access to dozens of centrifuges during its suspension of uranium enrichment activities, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Nov. 23).

Iran is “trying to convince the IAEA to leave several dozen of the centrifuges unsealed for R&D (research and development) purposes in addition to other equipment which has direct use for enrichment,” one diplomat said.

It would be “outrageous” for Iran to exempt some centrifuges from the suspension, a Western diplomat said.

Agency officials today were working to seal roughly 1,000 centrifuges at three sites in Iran, ahead of the start tomorrow of the IAEA Board of Governors meeting, AFP reported.

A diplomat close to the agency said the centrifuges would probably be used for testing rather than uranium enrichment (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 24).

Iran’s request appeared to be a continuance of earlier efforts, a Western diplomat said today. In the U.N. agency’s June report on Iran, it said:  “Iran has requested that a small number of key components, as well as 10 assembled rotors be left unsealed in order to allow ongoing R&D centrifuge work at Kalaye Electric Co. and Natanz.  Iran stated that R&D is not covered by its voluntary suspension undertakings, but these unsealed items would be made available to the Agency on request to permit it to ensure that they are not used in activities inconsistent with Iran’s undertaking.”

The chances for Iran prevailing on this matter, however, are slim, the diplomat said. “It doesn’t have any legs.”

An IAEA official said Iran was trying to draw the agency into defining what constituted a suspension of enrichment activities. The agency, however, prefers to limit its role to implementing Iran’s safeguards agreement, the official said. The agency would also be willing to verify additional measures Tehran might agree to with the European nations, but those measures would need to be specified by the Iran and the three EU states (Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, Nov. 24).

Negotiations continued yesterday on the resolution the three European nations will present to the U.N. agency on Iran’s nuclear effort, according to the Financial Times.

The EU countries want Iran to accede to more intrusive inspections under an Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement, while Iranian officials want the document to make it clear that the suspension is voluntary and that restarting uranium enrichment would not cause Tehran to be automatically sent to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions (Adams/Dinmore, Financial Times, Nov. 23).

“Iran will never be prepared to completely dismantle its nuclear program,” Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian said today. “Iran is prepared to give all assurances that uranium enrichment activities will never be diverted. That’s why we should have the right for peaceful nuclear technology and that this right should be exercised with no discrimination. That’s why dismantlement is out of the question” (Agence France-Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 24).

Iran’s parliament would press to resume enrichment if the IAEA meeting goes poorly for Tehran, parliament chief Gholamali Haddad Adel said today.

“The parliament is expecting that the IAEA and the European show that they respect their commitments during the meeting of the Board of Governors,” he said. “Otherwise, the parliament will force the government to resume enrichment” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Nov. 24).

The United States is prepared to support the resolution, diplomats told AFP.

U.S. officials are “just being pragmatic for once, recognizing that the EU-3 text is pretty good and that there are few policy alternatives to joining consensus on it,” a Western diplomat said (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse/ SpaceWar.com, Nov. 24).

The United States could someday re-establish diplomatic ties with Iran, but only after Tehran reverses its nuclear program and support for terrorism, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday.

“It is not in the best interest of international relations for there to be a permanent enmity or animosity between two states,” he told ABC News.

Such relations would develop “in due course,” Powell said. “But I think there is a history here, a 25-year-history of difficult relations with Iran” (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 24).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.