Broad agreement to cut aid projects in Iran

Vienna: Western and developing countries broadly accept a UN nuclear agency plan to cut almost half its aid projects in Iran, diplomats say, easing fears of a row over how strictly to apply UN sanctions against Tehran.

The plan, to cut technical aid projects based on a review by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts, must be approved at a March 5-9 meeting.

But members ranging from Iran's arch-foe the United States to its close ally Cuba raised no objections when IAEA aides, at a briefing this week, explained their criteria for shutting down some projects while continuing others, diplomats present said.

"No one is totally satisfied. But the review is as balanced as can be under the circumstances. I see no one wanting to pick a fight when the board convenes," a senior diplomat from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which includes Iran, said.

Pleased

This suggested the board may ratify the review by consensus, averting a damaging split.

Iran was hit with UN sanctions over its failure to prove to the IAEA that its efforts to enrich uranium are geared only towards generating electricity, as it maintains. Of the 55 IAEA aid projects in Iran, 10 were frozen and 12 others restricted to comply with the sanctions.

"We are pleased that IAEA has decided to cut technical assistance to 22 projects," Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog," said after the briefing. "We are still studying the report. But our preliminary analysis is that the IAEA approach meets the requirements of UN Security Council resolution."

Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Reuters the decision was unwarranted and weakened IAEA credibility.

"We don't blame the Secretariat, just certain [Western] powers on the Security Council who dictated for the first time in history how IAEA should give out aid," he said yesterday.

"Developing nations could lose motivation to stay in IAEA. We are not in it just to be inspected. None of these projects were related to our enrichment programme ... the programme will continue."