IRAN HAS agreed to allow international inspectors to visit its uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom, the head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said yesterday.
But the proposed date for the start of the inspection – October 25th – falls short of demands by the US and its allies, who fear a cover-up and had sought immediate access for UN inspectors.
The Qom agreement came amid disclosures concerning alleged attempts by Iran to design a nuclear warhead to be mounted on its Shahab long-range missiles, which are capable of striking Israel and some European countries.
Speaking after talks in Tehran with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mr ElBaradei sounded upbeat about a diplomatic resolution of the long-running dispute over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme.
Relations with Iran were moving from “confrontation” to “co-operation”, he said. “It is important for us to have comprehensive co-operation over the Qom site. We had dialogue, we had talks on clarification of the facility in Qom, which is a pilot enrichment plant.” Mr ElBaradei said Iran had broken IAEA rules in not notifying the agency earlier about the Qom plant, but he did not propose any penalties.
The Tehran talks followed a meeting in Geneva last Thursday between Iran and the UN Security Council’s five permanent members, plus Germany, during which US diplomats engaged in direct, overt talks with Iranian officials for the first time since 1979.
Although Iran offered concessions in Geneva on inspection of the Qom plant and agreed in principle to future reprocessing abroad of some of its enriched uranium stockpile, it did not agree to a UN demand for “unfettered” inspections of all its nuclear facilities. Tehran also continued to insist on its “sovereign” right to pursue all aspects of nuclear technology.
The talks also ended without agreement on the idea of a "freeze for freeze" – a suspension of further enrichment in return for a halt to tougher UN sanctions. – ( Guardianservice)