Iran Talks Quiet in Vienna, but High-Grade Uranium Reportedly Found

Amidst an otherwise quiet session of diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program, the New York Times today reported that U.N. inspectors found traces of highly enriched uranium in the country that would likely only be used for a nuclear weapon (see GSN, March 10).

In Vienna today, Nonaligned Movement countries met behind closed doors at the International Atomic Energy Agency to seek a common position on a draft resolution to address Iran’s nuclear status. The official meeting of the agency’s board, which began Monday and is expected to wrap up tomorrow, was suspended for the day.

The movement’s developing countries routinely complain that Washington and the European powers see their assent to the board’s theoretically consensus-based resolutions as an afterthought. This week has been no exception, according to Western diplomats here.

The full board is to resume discussions tomorrow on Iran, the last item left on the meeting agenda. With IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei set to leave for Washington this weekend, diplomats here say the board is likely to pass the Iran measure and end its meeting tomorrow (Joe Fiorill, GSN, March 11).

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported today that U.N. inspectors found traces of uranium in Iran last year that were of a higher enrichment level than previously reported. Iran is much further along the road to developing a nuclear weapon if the enrichment took place in the country, according U.S. and European diplomats, as such a high level of purity in uranium has only weapons purposes (Craig Smith, New York Times, March 11).

Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani revealed yesterday that the Iranian military had built centrifuges for uranium enrichment, the first public acknowledgment that the military took part in Iran's nuclear program. He said the centrifuges were crude models meant for civilian purposes (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 10).

In another report, the Associated Press said ElBaradei expressed dismay at the announcement that Iran would resume uranium enrichment, saying that the country must convince the world that it has no military nuclear program.

“I think suspension is ... a good confidence-building measure, and Iran needs to do everything possible right now to create the confidence required,” ElBaradei said (George Jahn, Associated Press/London Guardian, March 11).

Elsewhere, Australia has demanded the return of a mass spectrometer unless Iranian officials vow that it will not be used in a nuclear program. IAEA inspectors determined that Iranian scientists used the device to test enriched uranium samples, according to the Australian.

An Australian company supplied Iran with the device in 2001, ostensibly for use in agricultural and medical research (John Kerin, The Australian, March 11).

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