UNITED NATIONS: The head of the UN nuclear agency urged Iran on Monday to clarify its response amid mixed signals over a US-backed proposal that would have Tehran ship most of its nuclear material abroad for processing.
Iran s foreign minister said that option still exists while a senior diplomat suggested the opposite. The proposal would have Tehran export 70 percent of its enriched uranium – enough to make a bomb – and then have it returned as fuel for its research reactor.
Tehran s contrasting messages appear designed to keep the international community off balance on how far Iran is ready to go in accepting the original proposal.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Mohamed ElBaradei said a number of questions and allegations relevant to the nature of Iran s program remained, and he called for confidence building measures on all sides.
I therefore urge Iran to be as forthcoming as possible in responding soon to my recent proposal, based on the initiative of the US, Russia and France, which aimed to engage in a series of measures that could build confidence and trust, ElBaradei said in his final address before stepping down at the end of the month after 12 years as chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
This is a unique and fleeting opportunity to reverse course from confrontation to cooperation and should, therefore, not be missed, he added.
The US and other powers are concerned Iran may be enriching uranium for use in nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists its program is strictly for research and energy production.
Iran s mixed messages also appeared geared toward pushing the plan s main backers into further talks, something those countries oppose as a delaying tactic.
Speaking in Morocco, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the proposal will not be changed.
We continue to press the Iranians to accept fully the proposal that has been made, which they accepted in principle, she said at a news conference after consulting with senior government officials from several Persian Gulf nations, plus Egypt, Morocco and Jordan.
Acceptance fully of this proposal … would be a good indication that Iran does not wish to be isolated and does wish to cooperate with the international community, she said, adding Iran should accept it as it stands, because we are not altering it.
Some experts say, however, that Iran has little reason to trust the West and for that reason may be in no hurry to cut a deal.
Iran believes time is on their side for now, said Mustafa Alani, a regional analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai.
The dispute allows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his hard-line allies to claim the high ground as defenders of Iran s national dignity through its strides in nuclear technology. It also provides Ahmadinejad a chance to broaden support after June s disputed elections, because even his harshest opponents take pride in Iran s nuclear accomplishments.
In a posting on a government Web site, Ahmadinejad scolded the West for what he called a history of broken promises. Iran, he said, looks at the talks with no trust.
On Monday, ElBaradei called for confidence building measures on all sides.
The issue at stake remains that of mutual guarantees amongst the parties, ElBaradei said, adding trust and confidence-building are an incremental process that requires focusing on the big picture and a willingness to take risks for peace.
Mohammad Khazaee, Iran s ambassador to the United Nations, blasted ElBaradei for failing to cite Israel, which is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, for failing to comply with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
This regime (Israel) as the only non-party to the NPT in the Middle East is the main obstacle in establishing the nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East, he said, adding As we have stressed time and again, Iran s nuclear program is, and has always been for peaceful purposes.
While Iran insists it is interested only in enriching uranium for use in a future network of nuclear reactors, it has amassed more than 3,300 pounds (1.500 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium – more than enough to arm a nuclear warhead.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who spoke to reporters in Kuala Lumpur, simply replied No, when asked if his country had rejected the plan that would commit his country to ship out most of its enriched uranium.
Instead, he said Iran has three options to procure fuel for its reactor; to buy the fuel from other countries; to enrich the uranium domestically, or to accept the U.N.-brokered plan.
In contrast, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran s chief envoy to the IAEA, said Iran wanted to purchase ready-made uranium from abroad for the research reactor.
We want to buy the fuel from any supplier, he told The Associated Press, fending off repeated questions on whether this meant the rejection of the export plan.
Soltanieh s comments were the most concrete statement yet by a government official of what the Iranian government wanted.___Associated Press writers Ellen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Deborah Seward in Paris, Brian Murphy in Dubai contributed to this report; Jahn reported from Vienna.
