Mixed signals on Iran's nuclear program
Amid signs of compliance with UN demands, a leading presidential candidate says Iran will not give up its efforts.
In a nation riven by political fault lines, no issue resonates with as much public support and national pride as the pursuit of nuclear technology.
So as Iranians prepare to vote for a new president on Friday, front-runner Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is seeking to reassure Iranians and the West alike that Iran's intentions are peaceful.
"No, we will never give up this quest [for the nuclear-fuel cycle]," Mr. Rafsanjani said late Saturday. "But we will create the necessary trust that this is for peaceful purposes. I'm seriously convinced that this will be solved."
Iran has been cited by the UN's nuclear watchdog for a string of reporting violations that stretch back two decades.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors is due to hear an oral report on the Iranian case this week in Vienna. Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei was reappointed for a third term as the agency's head after the US dropped its lone effort to unseat him.
Reports indicate that the US is hoping for a tougher IAEA stance, though mixed signals have emerged in the past week.
Diplomats say that initial results of IAEA tests on traces of bomb-grade uranium, found two years ago on centrifuge parts purchased from Pakistan, are identical to those on parts provided by Pakistan last month - apparently confirming a longstanding Iranian explanation that Tehran did not produce the material itself.
A Western diplomat close to the IAEA investigation in Vienna said results still needed to be verified and peer-reviewed before a final determination.
Also, IAEA inspectors confirmed last Thursday that Iran had followed through with promises to suspend sensitive work at an underground uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz.
Separately, however, the Iran Defence News, which tracks Iranian military developments, reported Monday that Iran is negotiating with a North Korean team in Tehran that includes "specialists in underground construction who helped to design the bunkers that contain Pyongyang's [nuclear] weapons program."
The report quotes unnamed Western intelligence sources saying the proposal for a 10,000-square-meter underground facility could hide a weapons project.
Iran denies that it has ambitions to build a nuclear weapon, and has chafed at an 18-month suspension of enrichment activities it says are meant to produce nuclear fuel for power, not bombs. Iran's parliament, controlled by hard-line factions for more than a year, recently passed legislation obliging the government to pursue enrichment.
Iran has made no promises beyond July, when negotiators from Britain, France, and Germany - in a long-running diplomatic effort - are to detail a list of incentives.
"There is breathing space, but still an intractable problem," says a Western diplomat, about the roller-coaster EU-Iran talks.
The European negotiators, with indirect support from the US, insist that Iran permanently halt enrichment.
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