SARAJEVO/GENEVA, 12 September 2003 — Iran is willing to cooperate with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, but setting Tehran a deadline to prove it is not running a covert atomic weapons program will complicate the situation, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said here yesterday.
“We are ready to cooperate with the IAEA fully to give them access to files to do an inspection,” Kharrazi told journalists during a one-day visit to the Bosnian capital.
Kharrazi said cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency would be “useful,” however warning that “putting pressure on Iran will make it more complicated.”
Kharrazi was speaking as the IAEA decided to delay a crucial meeting in Vienna yesterday on imposing a deadline for Iran as the United States and 14 allies lobbied for resolution on Iran’s nuclear program. It was not clear whether Kharrazi was aware of the IAEA’s latest decision.
The United States and key allies pressed Russia and other skeptics to back a UN nuclear resolution giving Tehran until Oct. 31 to prove it has no secret atomic weapons program. Diplomats from France and Germany held closed-door talks with countries on the 35-nation board of governors of the IAEA to win their support for the toughly worded draft which offers Iran a last chance to show compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
