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Iran Nuclear Officials Note Technical, Legal Approach of Al- Baradi'I Report

Posted on: Monday, 21 November 2005, 06:00 CST

Text of unattributed report, entitled: "An analysis of positive and negative points in ElBaradei's report", published by Iranian daily Kayhan, 20 November

The International atomic Energy Agency Director-General's report about the programme of Iran's nuclear activities has finally been made public. According to news sources, the report was made available to the 35 members of the Board Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday evening.

The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency's regular session will begin its work in Vienna on 21 November (Monday 3oth Aban 1384). Based on the director-general's report, the members of the board of governors will debate Iran's nuclear file during the closing days of the current week. The report that Al-Baradi'i has presented to the November meeting will deal only with what has been happening between the two September and November sessions. Contrary to some of the earlier reports of the director-general, this one will not be a "sum total" of all that has happened in the past.

The report's content [subhead as published]

The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency begins his report by recalling the 24 September resolution's demands from Iran. The board of governors on 24 September had demanded that Iran: 1--suspend all enrichment activities, including the Esfahan UCF [uranium conversion facility]; 2--review building the heavy water reactor in Arak; 3--ratify accession to the additional protocol in full. In a paragraph it then deals with the issue of contamination.

In this paragraph, the director-general says: Analysis of environmental samples collected in another country in which, according to Iran, centrifugal equipment had been stored before they were transferred to Iran shows no evidence of existence of nuclear material." It is not quite clear whether this paragraph means that the contaminations relates to Iran.

The next section of ElBaradei's report concerns the issue of Iran's enrichment programme and, specifically, the history of the P1 and P2 centrifugal machines. In this section the director-general expresses satisfaction about receiving further documents from Iran and also access to a number of Iranian experts who had been involved in purchasing those machines.

Another section of the director-general report to the November session confirms that since the accession to the additional protocol in 2003 Iran has acted in such a way as if it had ratified the protocol in full. In addition, the director-general states that since the September session to this day three complementary instances of access have been carried out within the framework of the protocol. The report goes on to refer to the inspections that have been carried out at the Parchin site by the agency's inspectors and asserts that no unusual activity was observed at the Parchin site.

The director-general then confirms that Iran has carried out no activity that violates its commitment to voluntary suspension of enrichment. Nonetheless the report tries to exaggerate Iran's request to feed a quantity of raw material to the UCF.

In conclusion, the Al-Baradi'i report emphasizes that the agency is concentrating on receiving further documents about the centrifugal programme from Iran. In addition, Iran has been requested, as a measure towards transparency, to submit documents relating to acquiring dual-purpose equipment and to give permission to the agency to have access to the sites requested.

Reactions [subhead as published]

Before the presentation of the Al-Baradi'i report to the November session, on the fringes of a meeting with Mowaffaq al-Rubay'i, Iraq's national security advisor, Ali Larijani, Iran's Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who was addressing reporters, expressed the hope that previous attitude in ignoring technical and legal matters will not be repeated in ElBaradei's new report. Larijani emphasized: This time the agency has taken certain positive steps which we hope will be fruitful.

He turned to the several instances of visit by the agency inspectors and those of its deputy director-general and added: They saw some of America's false revelations with their own eyes.

Regarding recent sensationalism on the part of America about gaining access to intelligence that showed Iran was seeking manufacturing of nuclear weapons, Larijani said: America's fascistic conducts in the region have also been extended to the nuclear issue as well. He described those conducts as worn out and emphasized: It is not the first time that the Americans do those things.

Larijani then turned to the agency's request to inspect military sites and said: They must have firm reasons for wanting to see military sites.

While stressing Iran's interest in continuing negotiations with Europe, Larijani said: This is useful, but if they intend to waste time we shall adopt another attitude.

After news agencies made ElBaradei's report public, it became clear that the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council's optimism about the report keeping away from political considerations was not all that out of place.

The only Iranian official who took a position on ElBaradei's report was Javad Vadi'i, deputy head for international security of the Supreme National Security Council. Speaking to Sima's [Iranian television] 1900 news, he stated: Certain explanations have been provided in the report about the mode of cooperation between Iran and the agency in between the previous and the coming sessions which indicate that the agency's director-general has formulated his report within a legal and technical framework.

According to Va'idi, the report shows Iran has been committed to its commitments under international treaties.

According to ElBaradei's report, interview with two non-military individuals had removed to an acceptable degree the remaining issues about the P1 and P2 and good progress had been achieved.

Va'idi asserted: Alongside all the matters about Iran's responding to the agency's demands, other requests to Iran have been raised in the new report indicating that the agency does not intend to end its requests.

In conclusion he summed up ElBaradei's report and said: In a possible summing up of the recent report of the agency's director- general there are several points worth evaluating:

One--Presentation of reports with technical and legal approach would certainly enhance the agency's standing.

Two--The agency's sensible technical and legal approach towards Iran paves the way for continued Iran's cooperation with the agency, and no one loses by such an approach.

Three--Resolutions issued by the board of governors, similar to the board's previous resolution, instead of being based on political approaches [ambiguity as published].

In conclusion, he did not rule out the possibility of repeat of political behaviour.

Nevertheless, expert are of the belief that the moderation demonstrated by Al-Baradi'i in his report has at least three aims: First, giving the West an opportunity in the November session not to have to send Iran's case to the Security Council; second, urging Iran to provide further sensitive documents, something which would probably pave the way for subsequent pretexts and dragging the issue on. And third, Iran's cooperation has been so extensive and the remaining issues in Iran's case so insignificant that the director- general could not find himself capable of denying those facts.

Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East

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