IAEA: Iran agrees to answer remaining nuclear questions within month - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Sun., January 13, 2008 Shvat 6, 5768

Israel Time: 18:42 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Rosner's Domain

Diplomacy

Defense

Jewish World

Opinion

National

Print Edition

Advertising

Books

Arts & Leisure

Business

Real Estate

Easy Start

Travel

Week's End

Anglo File

Last update - 17:38 13/01/2008

IAEA: Iran agrees to answer remaining nuclear questions within month

By The Associated Press

Tags: Mohamed ElBaradei, Iran

Iran's top leaders have agreed to answer all remaining questions about their country's nuclear past within four weeks after talks with the United Nations's chief nuclear inspector, his spokeswoman said Sunday.

Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, also said that ElBaradei was given new information on Iran's new generation of centrifuges. That issue is a top priority for the agency as it tries to establish how far advanced Iran is in developing the technology, which could be used in a weapons program.

The four-week deadline is meant to wrap up an IAEA probe of past Iranian nuclear programs. A diplomat familiar with the talks said that investigation now was focused on the most delicate aspects of the Tehran's past atomic work, including programs linked to U.S. suspicions Tehran had conducted experiments linked to nuclear arms.

	Advertisement

The probe was originally slated to be completed in December, and the United States and its allies have been chafing at the delay, say diplomats accredited to the IAEA. But they are unlikely to object publicly if the extension allows ElBaradei to reveal details of such secret programs.

In Abu Dhabi on Sunday, U.S. President George W. Bush said Tehran defies the United Nations and destabilizes the region by refusing to be open and transparent about its nuclear programs and ambitions. Calling Iran the world's leading state sponsor of terror, he urged Arab nations to join with the U.S. to confront the danger before it's too late.

Fleming's e-mailed comments were issued just a few hours after ElBaradei's plane touched down in Vienna, ending a two-day visit to Tehran that included unprecedented meetings with both Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The diplomat said the talks went very well, adding that - beyond discussing the progress of his agency's probe into Iran's nuclear past - ElBaradei was able to press his case for the need for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment, a key UN Security Council demand.

Separately, however, a senior diplomat expressed doubt ElBaradei was able to persuade the Iranians to freeze enrichment and noted Western efforts for additional U.N. sanctions against the Islamic republic would continue unless that condition was met. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the issue.

Fleming's statement appeared to jibe with the first diplomat's comments on enrichment, saying the Tehran talks included the importance of the implementation of the Additional Protocol as well as on other confidence building measures called for by the Security Council.

The Security Council has demanded Iran suspend enrichment - which can create both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads - as a confidence building measure. It has additionally urged Tehran to restore broader inspection rights for the IAEA by reinstating the Additional Protocol granting agency experts such powers after suspending it more than a year ago.

Alluding to the IAEA probe of Tehran's past nuclear activities launched last year, Fleming also said that the talks resulted in agreement that the work plan should be completed in the next four weeks.

Under the plan, Iran committed itself to answering all lingering questions about its past nuclear activities - including those it has evaded since 2003, when nearly 20 years of clandestine atomic work on the part of Tehran were revealed.

Publicly, the agency has been careful about the progress of its probe. In an August report, ElBaradei said the agency felt that information provided by Iran on past small-scale plutonium experiments had resolved agency concerns about the issue. It has also confirmed that Tehran has given agency experts a copy of documents showing how to form uranium metal into the spherical shape of warheads.

But it specified that Iran still needed to satisfy the agency's curiosity about the issues that are potentially more important in determining whether the country has or had a military program - among them, the Green Salt project, the history and present state of its enrichment technology and the origins of traces of highly enriched uranium at a facility linked to the military.

The first diplomat said those were among the issues now under discussion. Shortly before ElBaradei's trip, diplomats had told the AP that Tehran had ended years of stonewalling and begun providing some information on the topics.

Iran also provided information on its research and development activities on a new generation of centrifuges, said Fleming's statement.

While IAEA experts have access to Iran's declared enrichment program using outmoded P-1 centrifuges, it has been kept in the dark about the existence of the state of the art p-2 machine.

Iranian officials confirmed the existence of a P-2 research program only last year. Up to November, diplomats told the AP that agency had recently been denied access to a workshop testing and developing the P-2.

The issue is important because large-scale use of P-2s would allow Iran to accelerate its enrichment program, which Tehran insists is only to create the capability to generate electricity

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	Back on the horse
	N.Y. Times reports Syria is rebuilding the alleged nuclear site bombed by the IAF.


	'Stunt gone awry'
	German Jews are enraged as a group likens a smoking ban to Nazi rule.




1.	Nice little story tucked away in the corner	17:50	\|	Chris Linthwaite	13/01/08

2.	isr will attack iran only if u.s ok`s it. from what	18:32	\|	bozhidar	13/01/08

Today Online


	Palestinians sue for NIS 40 million for land taken by settlers
	Responses: 85


	Yossi Sarid: Nice things in U.S., which would do Israel well
	Responses: 70


	Gideon Levy: Time for PM to oust refusers of peace in government
	Responses: 50


	Haaretz.com TV: Gaza parents can't join their sick children in Israel
	Responses: 87


	Israeli pianist Daniel Barenboim takes Palestinian citizenship
	Responses: 59

Rosner's Domain

Iranian boats threaten, so the candidates up the rhetoric

The way to war with Iran (WTR)

From 'The year of change' to 'The year of the comeback'?

Rosner's Guest: The Jews are best prepared for a "flat world"

Poll: Who is the candidate that will have better policies for Israel?

More Headlines
17:26 PM: Presence of W. Bank outposts is a 'disgrace'


17:43 Diamond industry officials identify Israelis killed in Namibia crash


17:26 Israeli pianist Daniel Barenboim takes Palestinian citizenship


17:42 University presidents' chairman warns may cancel academic year


16:11 Iranian boats threaten, so the candidates step up rhetoric


18:20 Bush warns that world must rally to confront danger of Iran


17:38 IAEA: Iran agrees to answer remaining nuclear questions within month


15:36 Lieberman to tell PM he may quit over nature of negotiations with PA


15:37 Man burns his wife to death in their Kiryat Yam apartment


14:51 Report: Egypt arrests terror cell planning attacks on Israel