Region | Iran
Iran-IAEA deal 'has real limitations'
A nuclear cooperation pact Iran struck with the International Atomic Energy Agency has "real limitations" and Tehran should stop trying to manipulate UN inspectors, a senior US official said.
- Reuters
- Published: 01:01 August 23, 2007
- Iranians spend their time in a cafe in Tehran. After months spent in a notorious prison with no access to lawyers, Haleh Esfandiari was released on bail on Tuesday.
- Image Credit: AP
Vienna: A nuclear cooperation pact Iran struck with the International Atomic Energy Agency has "real limitations" and Tehran should stop trying to manipulate UN inspectors, a senior US official said.
Washington was not impressed by the promise of Iranian transparency - hailed as a "milestone" by the IAEA - to allay suspicions it is secretly seeking atom bombs, and would pursue consultations on harsher UN sanctions against Tehran, he said.
"Of course, we welcome any progress in resolving troubling questions about Iran's nuclear activities," said Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog.
"But we understand there are real limitations with the plan, including Iran's continued refusal to implement the IAEA's Additional Protocol," Schulte told reporters by conference call in Vienna, headquarters of the IAEA.
He was referring to a measure allowing inspectors to check at sites not declared to be nuclear but seen as important to resolving longstanding questions about the scope and nature of Iranian nuclear activity.
IAEA negotiators said Iran had agreed to a timetable for carrying out the plan, but did not say how long it would take.
The agreement is meant to resolve longstanding IAEA questions about the murky extent of Iranian nuclear activity and improve inspector access to its underground enrichment plant.
Schulte said Iran's condition that it would not implement the transparency plan unless the UN Security Council shelved steps to increase sanctions on Tehran was unacceptable.
This was because Iran was still pressing ahead with enriching uranium for nuclear fuel at an underground plant despite several Security Council resolutions demanding it to stop.
"Cooperation that is partial, conditional, and only promised in the future is not enough. Cooperation that allows Iran to proceed developing the capacity to build nuclear weapons is also not enough," Schulte said.
"If Iran's leaders truly want the world's trust, they would stop trying to manipulate the IAEA, start to cooperate fully and unconditionally, and suspend activities of international concern."
Western powers suspect Iran's declared goal to refine uranium for electricity so it can export more of its oil is really a cover for mastering the means to make nuclear bombs.
"Iran is clearly trying to distract attention from its continued development of bombmaking capability. And I don't think the Security Council will be distracted," Schulte said.
"We are continuing to move forward in consultations with other partners on the Security Council on a third sanctions resolution."
Iran's refusal to suspend the programme has led to two sets of modest UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Details of the IAEA-Iran deal were expected to be included in a report for the agency's board of governors in the run-up to a September 10 to 14 meeting of the 35-nation body.
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