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Iran wants European, Russian help to enrich uranium
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-08 10:02 Iran wants to team up with European states and
Russia to produce enriched uranium, hoping that by involving them it can remove
fears that it is developing nuclear arms, a senior official was quoted as saying
Friday.
Iranian Foreign
Minister Kamal Kharrazi (L) and his German counterpart Joschka Fischer
address the media following their bilateral meeting in Berlin May 5, 2004.
[Reuters] | "Europeans are concerned about Iran's uranium enrichment program and feel
distrustful toward it," Hossein Mousavian, secretary of the foreign policy
committee of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told Russia's Itar-Tass
news agency.
Iran says it wants to produce enriched uranium as fuel for nuclear power
reactors. But many Western countries fear Iran could use the technology to make
bomb-grade material and the United States says it has a secret atomic weapons
program.
Iran and Europe "should jointly build trustful relations, including joint
uranium enrichment programs," Mousavian said, adding that he planned to raise
the idea with Britain, Germany and France in the next two to three weeks.
"We could, for example, start talking about setting up a consortium, which
would include European countries and Russia, to work together on this program."
An official at Russia's Atomic Energy Agency, who declined to be named, was
skeptical about the proposal. "Of course this is not necessarily just political
chit-chat by the Iranian side at a time when their nuclear program is under so
much scrutiny," he said." But we see it as something rather unlikely to happen,
at least in the near future."
Under intense international pressure after revelations it has hidden
sensitive nuclear research from the world for 18 years, Iran last year agreed to
allow snap inspections of its nuclear plants and suspend uranium enrichment
activities.
But Tehran insists it will not abandon its enrichment program and plans to
restart it once doubts about its nuclear plans have been cleared up.
IRAN CONFIDENT ABOUT IAEA MEETING
The Foreign Ministry said Iran was confident of escaping censure at next
month's U.N. nuclear watchdog board meeting.
"I am optimistic about the results of the International Atomic Energy
Agency's (IAEA) next meeting," the official IRNA news agency quoted spokesman
Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.
"Iran will definitely not be condemned in the next meeting, because Iran has
been cooperating with the agency transparently."
But several Western diplomats in Vienna said they expected IAEA chief Mohamed
ElBaradei to say Tehran had not been cooperating fully with the agency in the
June report on Iran.
"This would require a strong resolution by the IAEA board," one diplomat
said.
ElBaradei warned Iran Thursday the world would not wait forever for the
Islamic republic to divulge the full extent and nature of its nuclear program.
Doubts remain about Iran's assurances of peaceful intentions, but diplomats
privately acknowledge they have not found any "smoking gun" proving Iran wants
atomic weapons.
"We have suspicions but no evidence and we're running out of leads to follow
up," one said.
Another diplomat said even Washington acknowledged there was no prospect of
the IAEA board sending Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council in June for
possible sanctions.
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