11/29/2004
(TEHRAN, IRAN) - CBS/Wire Service
Iran confirmed Monday it had accepted — albeit
reluctantly — a face-saving solution to a uranium enrichment dispute
that could have escalated into referral of Iran to the U.N. Security
Council for sanctions.
Spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told reporters Iran
agreed not to test 20 centrifuges it had been insisting on using for
research "for now," as part of a total suspension of nuclear activities
that can yield weapons-grade uranium.
Ramezanzadeh said that while the 20 centrifuges
would not be used, they would not be sealed by the International Atomic
Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog. At the IAEA in Vienna,
diplomats also had said the agreement stipulated that the 20
centrifuges would not be placed under IAEA seals but monitored by
cameras.
With that issue settled, Iran accepted the latest
European draft of a resolution that commits Tehran to a total
suspension of uranium enrichment and all related activities.
Centrifuges can spin gas into enriched uranium, which can then be used
to produce energy or bombs.
Iran says its nuclear program is purely peaceful,
while the United States accuses it of seeking nuclear weapons and it is
pressing the United Nations to take firm action.
The IAEA board adopted the resolution later Monday.
The board could have asked for Security Council involvement if Iran had
not accepted a total suspension that included the 20 research
centrifuges.
Iran had raised the research centrifuge issue late,
forcing the IAEA board meeting to adjourn in disarray Friday. Though it
was unclear why Iran would risk scuttling the resolution, officials
here have faced pressure from Iranian hard-liners over what some see as
caving in to international demands.
"In the draft resolution, it has been specified
that how to use the (20) centrifuges for research has to be worked out
in negotiations with the IAEA," Ramezanzadeh said.
"The draft
resolution presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency is an
appropriate resolution although it doesn't meet all our objectives,"
Ramezanzadeh said.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian,
was more positive, telling state-run television from Vienna that "all
the fundamental and basic demands of Iran have been inserted in the EU
proposed draft." He said Iran's contention that suspension of its
enrichment activities was voluntary had been acknowledged in the draft.
In Vienna, a senior diplomat with nuclear expertise
told The Associated Press the Iranian pledge appeared to meet the
European demands for full suspension.
But a government official from a board member
country told AP that France, Germany and Britain had accepted an
Iranian demand to further water down the draft resolution. The text to
be adopted Monday now includes an extra phrase emphasizing that the
suspension is not a legal or binding obligation on Tehran's part, he
said.
Western diplomats said the United States — which
insists Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons — was unhappy with the
draft and felt it had been left out of negotiations on the text.
