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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: November 20, 2006 |
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Thirty-five nations tried to find common ground Monday in a fractious session on what to do about Iran's requests for help from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency on eight projects, including the building of a plutonium-producing reactor.
Diplomats accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting said there was majority agreement among the agency's 35 members on denying Tehran's request for aid in finishing its Arak research reactor, but lack of consensus about how to go about it as well as on seven other projects put forward by Tehran.
Adding to the discord was a ruling by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, that neither the reactor nor the other projects posed a proliferation threat.
"All (Iranian) projects are in conformity with the relevant Security Council resolution and, specifically, these projects do not contribute to enrichment related or reprocessing activities in Iran," Anna Maria Cetto, an agency deputy director general, told an IAEA committee reviewing technical aid requests from Iran and other countries.
The council's main concern is Tehran's uranium enrichment program -- and Iran's defiance of a council demand that it freeze such activities. But the Arak heavy water reactor is also worrying because once it is completed -- sometime in the next decade -- it will produce plutonium. This, like highly enriched uranium, can be used for the fissile core of nuclear warheads through reprocessing.
"Our concern is that such a reactor would in the future produce significant quantities of plutonium and would involve a significant proliferation risk," an EU statement said in urging the board to refuse aid for the Arak project. "We cannot support providing technical assistance to a heavy water research reactor project that the board has several times asked Iran to reconsider."
The United States, Canada and Australia also urged that help on Arak be denied, said a diplomat coming out of the closed meeting.
In contrast, Russia and China -- the key blockers of tough U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran backed by the U.S. and its European allies on the council -- suggested they had no objections to IAEA help on Arak, said the diplomat. Cuba was the most hardline, demanding that the board approve the Arak project, she said.
A Security Council resolution in July demanded that Iran stop all enrichment-related activities. But it did not specifically mention Arak, saying only that Tehran had to stop all "reprocessing activities."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that Iran would be self-sufficient in nuclear fuel in 2007, just days after he said his country was far from producing enough fuel to power a nuclear reactor. To reach that goal, Iran would need to accelerate its capacity for uranium enrichment dramatically.
"Iran will produce its required nuclear fuel next year," the president said during a visit to Iran's Broadcasting Company, according to the company's Web site.
"Pressure by the U.S. and Israel aimed at violating the rights of the Iranian nation will not succeed," he said.
Normally, the United States takes the lead in demanding tough action against Tehran for defying U.N. Security Council demands that it freeze uranium enrichment.
But with council agreement on sanctions mired down because of Russian and Chinese efforts to block severe punishment, diplomats said the Americans have taken a back seat to France in calling for harsher penalties.
A diplomat familiar with the U.S. stance said the Americans were letting France take the lead on demands that all eight Iranian projects be reviewed and possibly refused, because of recognition that the board would agree to nothing more than denying Iran help with Arak.
A European diplomat said the Americans -- along with Australia and Canada -- fully backed the French, but preferred Paris be publicly linked to the more hardline position at a time when Washington was exploring the possibility of direct contacts with Tehran.
Even nonaligned nations traditionally supportive of Iran were likely to approve some form of denying Iran help for Arak -- possibly by deferring a decision -- but the other seven Iran projects were less controversial.
One asks for help in developing nuclear capabilities for medical use. Another seeks legal aid for the Russian-built Bushehr reactor, which even the Americans have accepted as not posing a threat to nuclear proliferation. And the five others ask for assistance in administrative or safety aspects of nuclear power, according to a list made available to the AP.
Denying Iran help with Arak -- where it is seeking agency assistance to make sure the reactor is environmentally safe -- would do little to slow construction of that facility or affect Tehran's other potential avenue to weapons production -- uranium enrichment. Still, it would send a signal in how harshly to penalize Tehran.
Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, said his country's request would benefit the international community by increasing outside involvement in Arak.
"By adopting this project, the agency's presence ... will be much more," he said. |
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