VIENNA, 15 November 2004 — Iran has agreed to a full suspension of uranium enrichment in line with an agreement worked out with the European Union, ending a deadlock over answering US charges that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, diplomats close to the talks told AFP yesterday.
The UN atomic energy later received an official letter from Iran confirming that Tehran has agreed to suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said.
Both Iranian and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) diplomats confirmed the handover, which took place yesterday evening at IAEA headquarters here.
Another diplomat said there is “full acceptance between the EU and the Iranians” and that Iran had agreed to a full suspension of uranium enrichment including “no testing or production in any conversion facility.”
The diplomat was referring to what had been a sticking point over Iran agreeing to not even manufacture the feedstock gas that is the first step in the enrichment process.
Iran’s top official in charge of the country’s nuclear program, Hassan Rowhani, was due to announce the agreement later yesterday in Tehran, according to reports from the Iranian capital.
The diplomat in Vienna said “all has been negotiated” but cautioned that the announcement by Rowhani would be crucial.
He said the problem with conversion had come about since Iran had apparently already begun the process of converting some uranium yellowcake ore into the feedstock gas.
An IAEA team arrived in Iran on Saturday to visit the conversion facility and determine what the problem was, he added.
He said Iran had agreed to suspend enrichment, the process that makes nuclear reactor fuel but which can also make what can be the explosive core of atomic bombs, until a long-term agreement was reached with the EU.
The European Union is ready to offer Iran incentives such as access to nuclear fuel and even a light water research reactor, but the diplomat said that none of these incentives were specifically mentioned in a two-page agreement reached with Iran and which obligates Iran to work toward a long-term agreement in meeting international concerns about its nuclear program.
Rowhani was to deliver the response to the ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany in an 11th-hour meeting ahead of a Nov. 25 session of the IAEA, sources from both sides said in Tehran.
The Nov. 25 session of the agency’s 35-nation board of governors is to decide on US-led calls for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear program, which Washington charges is a cover for a covert weapons drive.
Britain, France and Germany had said they would back the US hard-line if Iran failed to tell the IAEA that it agrees to a full suspension.
The carrots the EU is said to be offering Iran are civilian nuclear technology, including access to nuclear fuel and a light-water research reactor, increased trade and help with Tehran’s regional security concerns.
But these are to come after suspension and a long-term agreement while Iran wants the incentives to come soon after it suspends enrichment.
