Iran suspends uranium plans
14/11/2004 19:25  - (SA)  

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Vienna - Iran has agreed to a full suspension of uranium enrichment in line with an agreement worked out with the European Union, ending a deadlock over answering US charges that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, diplomats close to the talks told AFP on Sunday.

"The letter from Tehran is on its way," a diplomat close to UN nuclear watchdog IAEA said, but he added that the IAEA had not yet seen the letter.

Another diplomat said there is "full acceptance between the EU and the Iranians" and that Iran had agreed to a full suspension of uranium enrichment including "no testing or production in any conversion facility".

Sticking poin

The diplomat was referring to what had been a sticking point over Iran agreeing to not even manufacture the feedstock gas that is the first step in the enrichment process.

Iran's top official in charge of the country's nuclear programme, Hassan Rowhani, was due to announce the agreement later on Sunday in Tehran, according to reports from the Iranian capital.

The diplomat in Vienna said "all has been negotiated" but cautioned that the announcement by Rowhani would be crucial.

He said the problem with conversion had come about since Iran had apparently already begun the process of converting some uranium yellowcake ore into the feedstock gas.

An IAEA team had arrived in Iran on Saturday to visit the conversion facility and determine what the problem was, he added.

He said Iran had agreed to suspend enrichment, the process that makes nuclear reactor fuel but which can also make what can be the explosive core of atomic bombs, until a long-term agreement was reached with the EU.

The European Union is ready to offer Iran incentives such as acess to nuclear fuel and even a light water research reactor.

However, the diplomat said that none of these incentives were specifically mentioned in a two-page agreement reached with Iran and which obligates Iran to work towards a long-term agreement in meeting international concerns about its nuclear programme.

- AFP

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