Iran Says Uranium Enrichment Will Stop Today

Iran’s top security official has said that Tehran would suspend uranium enrichment activities today and would soon formally announce its intention to allow unannounced inspections of Iran’s nuclear activities.

Hassan Rohani, general secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Russian officials in Moscow today that Iran is “temporarily suspending” uranium enrichment “from today” (see GSN, Nov. 6).

Rohani also announced that Iranian officials are delivering a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency to indicate Tehran’s willingness to sign the Additional Protocol to its nuclear safeguards agreement, which would allow the agency to conduct more intrusive monitoring of Iran’s nuclear activities (VOA News, Nov. 10).

Meanwhile, the agency is expected to circulate a new report this week saying that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons, as the United States has repeatedly alleged.

“They don’t have any indications of a weapons program,” said a Western diplomat who follows the agency closely.

There is also little chance that the agency will report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, according to another diplomat (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Nov. 10).

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who met with Rohani Saturday, said Iran has given the agency “satisfactory cooperation” but has not yet provided “full transparency.”

“I think we are moving together to try and resolve all remaining issues,” he said (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 9).

Rohani said Iran will work with Russia to resolve the nuclear controversies.

“On the nuclear issue, we are discussing with the Russians ways we could cooperate in the next IAEA meeting and international issues regarding the nuclear activities,” he said (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 10).

U.S. intelligence officials, however, are warning that the Additional Protocol and unannounced inspections might not prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. The CIA highlighted a secret nuclear facility at Natanz that was revealed by Iranian dissidents last year.

“Even with intrusive IAEA safeguards inspections at Natanz, there is a serious risk that Iran could use its enrichment technology in covert activities,” the CIA told Congress in a letter made public last weekend (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Nov. 9).

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