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Iran Nears Deal With IAEA By Greg Webb VIENNA — An agreement on resolving Iran’s latest nuclear controversy appears to be imminent here as Tehran has reportedly dropped its insistence on a key sticking point that threatened to disable a recent deal with three European nations (see GSN, Nov. 24). Earlier this month, Iran agreed to suspend all of its uranium enrichment activities and the way appeared clear for the easy passage of a resolution from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors, which began a quarterly meeting here yesterday. In the Paris agreement, Iran promised “on a voluntary basis, to continue and extend its suspension to include all enrichment related and reprocessing activities, and specifically: the manufacture and import of gas centrifuges and their components; the assembly, installation, testing or operation of gas centrifuges.” At the last minute, however, Iran erected an obstacle Wednesday when it disclosed its intention to continue research and development activities with some centrifuge equipment. In a pair of letters to the agency this week, Iran agreed to allow agency inspectors to seal all “essential components of centrifuges,” but reserved the right to keep active “up to 20 sets of (centrifuge) components for R&D purposes and provide the agency with access when requested.” The letters were quoted by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei in his statement to the board yesterday. The exemption issue loomed over the board meeting, where many members, particularly the United States, remain skeptical that Iran’s nuclear activities are peaceful. Even ElBaradei expressed a cautious note yesterday. “A confidence deficit has been created, and confidence needs to be restored. Iran’s active cooperation and full transparency is therefore indispensable,” he said in his board statement. While U.S. officials have publicly avoided commenting on the dispute over the interpretation of the EU-Iranian agreement, one U.S. official privately expressed concern. “R&D is precisely what we don’t want Iran to have,” he said Deal Near Late today reports emerged that Iran has dropped its demand and would provide a letter to the board stating its new commitment to full suspension. That letter is expected shortly, and the board is likely to reconvene Saturday afternoon to approve a new resolution. “We are very, very close to a deal,” IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told reporters today. The board is expected to approve a new resolution, the text of which has evolved over the week. The three EU nations yesterday circulated a revised draft board resolution that loosened earlier “trigger” language requiring the board to be alerted if Iran was found to violate its suspension agreement. The change appears to raise the threshold for reporting and to reduce the urgency of the reporting requirement. Earlier language called on the IAEA director general “to report immediately to the board should the agency encounter evidence that the suspension is not fully implemented, or be prevented from monitoring all elements of the suspension.” Yesterday’s language calls on the director general “to report without delay to the board should the agency find that the suspension is not fully sustained, or should the agency be prevented from verifying all elements of the suspension.” There is no mention of the U.N. Security Council in either draft resolution, so it appears that Iran will avoid, at least temporarily, having its situation considered by a body with more political clout.
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