Iran Welcomes Reported El-Baradei Proposal
IAEA Director-General el-Baradei (file photo) (epa)
Iran's official IRNA news agency quotes Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki as saying that Tehran sees Muhammad el-Baradei's proposal as "a step forward."
Mottaki also said Tehran is ready to continue talks in a bid to allay international concerns that it may seek to develop nuclear weapons.
IRNA says Mottaki made the remarks at a meeting of the Iran-Tunisia economic commission.
Reports say el-Baradei recently suggested that Iran could be allowed to operate a pilot enrichment plant while giving guarantees it would not conduct industrial-scale enrichment.
Negotiations between Iran and international community collapsed last month after Tehran said it was resuming its enrichment program.
(IRNA, AFP)
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On 4 February, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency approved in a 27-3 vote a resolution to report the matter of Iran's nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council. The key section of the resolution is Section 1, which states that the Board of Governors:
Underlines that outstanding questions can best be resolved and confidence built in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's program by Iran responding positively to the calls for confidence-building measures which the Board has made on Iran, and in this context deems it necessary for Iran to:
- reestablish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and processing activities, including research and development, to be verified by the Agency;
- reconsider the construction of a research reactor moderated by heavy water;
- ratify promptly and implement in full Additional Protocol;
- pending ratification, continue to act in accordance with the provisions of the Additional Protocol with Iran signed on 18 December 2003;
- implement the transparency measures, as requested by the Director General, which extend beyond the former requirements of the Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol, and include such access to individuals, documentation relating to procurement, dual use equipment, certain military-owned workshops and research and development as the Agency may request in support of its ongoing investigations.
COMPLETE TEXT: To read the final resolution, with late-hour changes highlighted, click here.
THE COMPLETE PICTURE: RFE/RL's complete coverage of controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear program.
An annotated timeline of Iran's nuclear program.