NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, Feb. 28, 2005

Story Continues Below

  Tehran has said it wants to use uranium enrichment for the peaceful purpose of power generation, but the practice can also be used to make weapons.

A two-year agency investigation already had established that Iran ran a clandestine nuclear program, including uranium enrichment, for nearly two decades.

Revealing details to The Associated Press on the weekend, the diplomats, requesting anonymity, said the new revelations indicated Iran had been offered full enrichment know-how earlier than previously believed. The diplomats said that, in cooperating with an IAEA investigation, Iran had turned over to the agency the initial written information from the network and had claimed to have refused offers of technology that specifically geared toward making nuclear weapons.

"They indicated that they did not take these people up on the entirety of the offer," ElBaradei said, alluding to the Iranian claim, adding, however, that the agency still had to "make sure that ... they only got what they told us they got out of this offer."

In giving the agency the written offer from the network of Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan, Iran "showed us for the first time the offer they had, and that is good," ElBaradei told reporters.

Despite its focus on the two countries, the board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency is unlikely to take concrete action either on Iran or North Korea. The main attempt to deal with Iran has moved to another forum, with France, Germany and Britain working to have Tehran commit to scrapping uranium enrichment, while the agency has no leverage at all in the case of North Korea, which quit the IAEA two years ago.

Still, with the two nations considered the greatest nuclear threats, much of the meeting will deal with ways of defusing concerns. North Korea, which last month announced that it had nuclear weapons, will be urged to return to six-nation talks meant to defuse the threat, said diplomats accredited to the agency on the eve of Monday's opening session.

The diplomats also told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Iran would be the target of oblique criticism in the board's closed-door meetings, with senior agency officials citing some lack of cooperation with IAEA officials.

Among the problems to be discussed are delays by Tehran in informing the agency that it was building tunnels in the central city of Isfahan to house parts of its now suspended uranium enrichment program, the diplomats said.

Mention also would be made of maintenance work on centrifuge parts and pipes by Iran that possibly violated the spirit of an agreement with the three European powers to totally freeze its enrichment program while negotiations were still ongoing. The Europeans hope to persuade Iran to scrap enrichment permanently.

President Bush has expressed support for the European efforts to negotiate with Iran. U.S. State Department nonproliferation officials grudgingly accepted a decision by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei not to publish a report on the investigation of Iran's nuclear activities for the first time in two years of board meetings because of lack of major new findings.

Still, there was evidence that the Americans would attempt to increase pressure on Tehran by the next board meeting in June, should the French, German and British talks fail.

A confidential U.S. position paper for the meeting called for a new written report on Iran by the June meeting. Furthermore, it urged board members meeting in June to "take further action if needed" against Iran - in effect a demand that Tehran be hauled before the U.N. Security Council if there is any indication it was defying the agency on nuclear matters.

A separate U.S. document outlined the need for a "Special Committee" to deal with nations violating the Nonproliferation Treaty - which Washington says Iran has done. Such a committee could "make recommendations to the board" to report suspect nations to the Security Council, said that document, also leaked to the AP.

© 2005 The Associated Press

Editor's note: