Iran said Friday that it would only be willing to accept more stringent nuclear oversight if economic sanctions were lifted (see GSN, May 30).

“If sanctions are lifted and we are allowed access to nuclear technology, we are fully prepared to sign any new additional protocol,” Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Friday.  U.N. officials have been pushing Tehran to adopt the Additional Protocol to its safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which would increase the agency’s power to inspect and monitor Iranian nuclear activities.

Kharrazi also suggested that Washington could help Iran’s nuclear development, even though U.S. officials have criticized Russian nuclear assistance to Iran and accused Tehran of secretly developing nuclear weapons.

“Russia has helped us a lot to build the Bushehr nuclear power plant to produce electricity,” Kharrazi said, referring to the joint nuclear project in southern Iran.  “Western countries can also participate in tenders we are planning to offer for the construction of more nuclear plants,” he added (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/London Guardian, June 1).

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty obliges Washington to assist Tehran with peaceful nuclear development.

“The question of sanctions has to be resolved first.  We will not sign any other international accord while the West does not respect its obligations outlined by the NPT, and does not help us with (peaceful) nuclear technology as the NPT obliges them to,” said spokesman Hamid Asefi (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 2).

Russian officials echoed the invitation.

“There is enough room for everyone,” said Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev.  Iran is planning to build five more nuclear reactors and the United States is welcome to take part, he said.

“We have made this proposal to our American colleagues several times during discussions on the expert level, and they have been saying they need to think about it,” according to Rumyantsev (Beirut Daily Star, June 1).

The IAEA, meanwhile, said that it is not yet clear if Iran’s expanding nuclear program is intended to develop nuclear weapons.

“Building these facilities does not automatically mean this is a weapons program, because they can have peaceful applications in a nuclear program dedicated to producing electricity,” said IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei (Reuters/Washington Post, May 31).

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