TEHRAN, 7 March 2004 — Iran pledged yesterday to accelerate cooperation with the UN atomic watchdog in a bid to prove it is not seeking nuclear weapons, but also pressed to end UN inspections by June. Mohamed El-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran had agreed to a timetable for atomic checks and to submit full details of its nuclear program and ambitions to the IAEA in mid-May.
“(Iranian nuclear chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh) committed that Iran will do everything possible to accelerate the process of resolving the outstanding issues,” Baradei told reporters after talks in Tehran. The IAEA is seeking clarification of how traces of weapons-grade uranium came to be found at the Natanz enrichment plant south of Tehran and a Kalaye Electric Company workshop.
If enriched to a low level, uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power stations. But further enrichment can make it suitable for use in warheads. The United States accuses Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program, but Tehran says its nuclear ambitions are confined to generating electricity.
The IAEA also wants answers on Iran’s omissions of key atomic technology from an October statement that included undeclared research on advanced “P2” centrifuges that can make weapons-grade uranium.
In a show of good will, Aghazadeh said Iran would suspend the making and assembling atomic parts from April 9, something it agreed to do by March under an arrangement struck in February.
Iranian hard-liners who won a massive majority in February’s parliamentary elections have been calling for Tehran to demand a deadline for the end of UN inspections.
Conservative commentator Hossein Shariatmadari, writing in the Siyasat-e-Rouz daily newspaper, said Iran should follow North Korea and pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if inspectors want to work beyond a Tehran deadline.
