Iran says it has suspended uranium enrichment in Brussels...

[whistle]

...and is looking to improve relations with Europe.

<snip>

Monday, December 13, 2004

Iran nuclear chief hails 'new chapter' with Europe after talks

BRUSSELS (AFP) Dec 13, 2004
Iran's top nuclear official Hassan Rowhani hailed Monday a "new chapter" in relations between Tehran and Europe, after talks with key EU ministers on rewards Iran is to receive for suspending uranium enrichment to show it is not making atomic weapons.
Rowhani, speaking after talks with the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain, said he hoped the negotiations "can be indicative of a new chapter in our relations not only with the three European countries but with Europe as a whole."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said: "We are now able to move forward to the next phase," confirming that working groups of officials from both sides would pursue talks starting immediately.

"We are all committed to the successful outcome of the process which began in Iran 14 months ago," when Tehran first reached agreement with the so-called EU3 on its uranium enrichment activities, an accord that had faltered due to bickering over whether all support activites such as making centrifuges were included.

Uranium is enriched by centrifuges into fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but also what in highly refined form can be the explosive core of atomic bombs.

Straw said a key purpose of the talks would be to determine "that Iran's nuclear program can only be used for peaceful purposes."

Under an agreement struck last month in Paris, Iran pledged to suspend all enrichment activities, in return for promises of trade, technology and security rewards, the topics of the three working groups.

The United States charges that Iran is using the Paris agreement to gain time to enable it to secretly develop nuclear weapons and would like to see Tehran brought before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

But Washington is giving the EU initiative a chance, even though it does not back it.

Diplomats said the talks could not succeed unless Washington eventually takes part, since Iran could not join the World Trade Organization (WTO), for example, or receive regional security guarantees without US support.

Iran wants rapid progress.

Tehran will be assigning a minister to each of the three working groups as "a sign that they want the process to move quickly," a diplomat close to the talks said.

The diplomat said Rowhani had told the European trio that a three-month deadline, after which the working groups are to file reports, was very important for Iran as "time is of the essence" for them.

But "substance is of the essence," for the Europeans, the diplomat said.

Rowhani had warned before leaving Tehran for Brussels that the Islamic republic would abandon the talks, and the suspension, in the absence of meaningful progress.

Rowhani meanwhile played down comments from Tehran that Iran was seeking exemptions from the suspension in order to use centrifuges for research when he said: "The purpose of the suspension is to create a new atmosphere through which we can have serious negotiations with our Europen partners."

The European trio had refused at a meeting in Vienna last month of the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to let Iran withhold 20 centrifuges from the freeze in order to do research, saying the halt must be total and involve all related enrichment activities.

The Iranian demand had threatened to scupper the agreement.

But in Tehran, government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh said Monday that Iran was sticking to its demand that 20 centrifuges be excluded as "halting research is not on the agenda."

The working groups cover incentives Iran is to be offered over the long term. One group is in technology, economics and cooperation, another in nuclear issues and a third in politics and security, diplomats said.

In return for "objective guarantees" that it will not develop the bomb, Iran has been offered incentives such as help in joining the WTO and in obtaining a light water research reactor. Tehran would in turn abandon plans to build a heavy water reactor that would be more capable of producing bomb-grade material.

The IAEA has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme for almost two years.

In a sign of continuing concern about Iran's intentions, diplomats said last week that the Islamic Republic was conducting secret high-energy neutron experiments, allegedly taking place under military supervision, that could be destined for civilian purposes or aimed at making nuclear weapons.

<link> http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041213200537.6ltuql43.html

[mr_hat]

1. So... They were enriching right under the Phlegms noses?