Iran upholds “nuclear rights” as IAEA meets

By Mark Heinrich and Emma Thomasson

VIENNA (Reuters) – The chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog
said on Monday Iran was still resisting investigation into its
atomic program, but he welcomed a big-power offer of incentives
to Tehran to resolve the crisis.

Iran earlier ruled out any compromise on its right to
enrich uranium, without rejecting outright the package offered
by six major nations on condition it halts its work on nuclear
fuel.

Tehran restated its position just before the International
Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board began meeting in Vienna.

“It (is) clear that the agency has not made much progress
in resolving outstanding verification issues,” IAEA Director
General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a keynote speech to the
board.

“I remain convinced that the way forward lies through
dialogue and mutual accommodation,” he said.

Diplomats said the IAEA would debate Iran but pass no
resolutions, to avoid any diplomatic upset while Tehran
considers its response to the big-power initiative.

“Iran’s view on the nuclear fuel cycle has been announced
… we have obtained this technology, it is our obvious right
and we do not negotiate over our obvious nuclear rights,”
Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said in
Tehran.

President Bush has said Iran has weeks, not months, to
decide whether to accept the deal.

“The G8 foreign ministers’ meeting at the end of the month
will obviously be a time to see where we stand with Iran,” a
State Department official said on Monday.

Ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations
meet on June 29-30 ahead of a G8 summit on July 15-17.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the IAEA
board meeting was not a diplomatic deadline for the
negotiations.

The nuclear dispute intensified in February when the IAEA
referred Tehran to the U.N. Security Council over its history
of hiding atomic research and obstructing IAEA investigations.

Last week the United States, France, Germany, Britain,
Russia and China offered Iran incentives to stop making nuclear
fuel. Tehran has repeatedly vowed to pursue such work.

THREAT OF SANCTIONS

Iran could face U.N. sanctions if it refuses to halt its
enrichment program, which it says is intended only to produce
fuel for nuclear power plants, not for atomic bombs.

The U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, speaking just before the
35-nation board convened, said the ball was in Iran’s court and
the next decision had to emerge from Tehran, not Vienna.

“The United States and other members of the IAEA board hope
this will be a decision to refrain from further
enrichment-related and reprocessing activities including
research and development, and to take advantage of the enormous
diplomatic opportunities that lie in front of the Islamic
Republic,” Gregory Schulte told a news briefing.

Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, earlier
urged the body to avoid “politically motivated statements that
could spoil the environment” for a diplomatic solution.

Chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said on
Sunday the precondition on enrichment had to be clarified.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has said Tehran will send its
own counter-proposals to the international incentive package.

Western diplomats say the deal includes a light-water
reactor and an atomic fuel storage facility, as well as a rare
U.S. offer to join the European Union’s direct talks with Iran.

Western leaders have in the past ruled out allowing Iran
any domestic nuclear fuel program. But the new package would
allow for one after an open-ended halt to enrichment work,
probably lasting years, and under full IAEA surveillance.

“No one is expecting fireworks. The priority is not to
distract from the package on the table for Iran — the best
chance, maybe the last one, for a non-confrontational
solution,” said an IAEA diplomat, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

Iran says its nuclear program aims to produce low-enriched
uranium for electricity generation. The West suspects Iran,
with the world’s second largest reserves of oil and gas, is
bent on enriching uranium to the high level used to make atom
bombs.

(Additional reporting by Alireza Ronaghi in Tehran)