IRAN GAVE IAEA OFFICIAL LETTER ON ADDITIONAL PROTOCOLS
MOSCOW-VIENNA 10 Nov. (IPS) Iran submitted Monday to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the long awaited official letter stating that it had signed the Additional Protocols to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), opening the way for snap inspections of its nuclear-related installations by international inspectors.
"I officially announce that we are giving the International Atomic
Energy Agency a letter agreeing with the Additional Protocol today", Hojjatoleslam
Hasan Rohani, the powerful Secretary Iran's Supreme National Security
Council announced in Kremlin, meeting with Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
"From today, we are temporarily suspending our process of uranium enrichment", he added, as Iran’s Ambassador to IAEA, Dr Ali Akbar Salehi was giving the letter to Dr Mohammad el-Barade’i, the IAEA Egyptian Chief.
"Based on the voluntary measure, which is another step towards international confidence-building, the Islamic Republic of Iran would start suspending the process of uranium enrichment activities as of Tuesday 11 November", a source at Iran’s IAEA office confirmed.
Iran’s commitments, plus a report by report by IAEA inspectors capped by a letter from Mr. El-Bradeh’i would studied on 20 November by the 35 members of the Agency’s Board of Directors, deciding whether to call for international sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
As Iran handed over its official engagement to the IAEA, the British news agency Reuters quoted diplomats in Vienna saying that the U.N. nuclear watchdog will say it has found no signs of a secret atomic weapons program in Iran.
"They don't have any indications of a weapons program", a Western diplomat, who follows the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) closely, told Reuters.
Iran first accepted to sign the Additional Protocols after foreign affairs ministers of Britain, France and Germany travelled to Tehran on 20 October to warn Tehran that if it refuses to go along with IAEA demands, the United Nations’ Security Council could decide imposing harsh economic sanctions.
After the meeting Mr. Rohani, who is Iran’s chief negotiator, announced Iran’s acceptance of both the Protocols and also suspend its uranium enriching programs.
Mr. Rohani, who had travelled to Moscow on Sunday after meeting Mr. El-Brade’i in Vienna, described his talks with Russian President, Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov and Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushaylo as "quite fruitful", adding that the meeting focused on bilateral, regional and international relations between the two states as well as their nuclear cooperation.
Mr. Rohani repeated that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed towards peaceful purposes, observing the decision to sign the Protocol and suspend its uranium enrichment process temporarily had to do with its intention to build up the confidence of the international community in itself.
Moscow is assisting the Islamic Republic to build 1000 megawatts atomic-powered electric plant in the Persian Gulf city of Booshehr.
Quoted by the official news agency IRNA, the SNSC Secretary stated that Russia has promised to finish the Booshehr power station "the soonest possible" and that talks for a second unit were also "expected".
The present Booshehr project was to go into stream this year, but Russian experts now they say the plant would not produce electricity before 2005.
Iranian and western experts say with the world’s second largest proven gas reserves after Russia, Iran does not need nuclear-powered electricity stations.
On the issue of fight against international terrorism, Mr. Rohani, who is a close aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamneh’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic, confirmed that his country had arrested 500 members of al-Qa’eda and returned to them to their countries of origin.
Ivanov told reporters that Iran’s fight against terrorism, as demonstrated by the arrest of the al-Qa’eda operatives, was "a sign of good and close cooperation with other states", a reference to Washington and Israel’s allegations that Iran is after building an atomic arsenal.
In his view, Iran’s joining the Protocol and open up its nuclear projects ended the concerns of different countries and paved the way for launching cooperation in new fields.
Mr. Rohani handed over to Mr. Putin a letter from his Iranian counterpart,
inviting him to visit Iran officially, an invitation that has been accepted,
IRNA said. ENDS IRAN IAEA 101103