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Thursday, November 25, 2004
Before Ink Dries, Iran Wants Exemptions
November 25, 2004
The Christian Science Monitor
Jim Bencivenga
Iran is making a new demand about its nuclear program, reports Reuters.
The Islamic republic requested on Wednesday that it be allowed to operate dozens of centrifuges "for research purposes." The process is an activity Iran agreed to ban under a uranium enrichment freeze that went into effect Monday.
Citing a Western diplomat on condition of anonymity, Reuters reports that
'Iran has asked to be allowed to test centrifuge rotors during the freeze,' said a diplomat, who added that this would require permission to operate a number of centrifuges.
Centrifuges are machines that purify uranium by spinning at supersonic speeds. The finished product can be used to fuel power plants or nuclear weapons.
The Iranians want the equipment exempted from UN watchdog "seals meant to ensure the enrichment program is completely shut down," reports the Associated Press.
Tehran's move comes on the eve of a Nov. 25 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors in Vienna. The session will examine Iran's compliance with international demands meant to ease suspicions about its nuclear activities, reports EurActiv.com.
Under a draft resolution submitted by Britain, France and Germany, the IAEA should be able to monitor Iran's observance of its pledge not to enrich uranium. However, Washington considers this to be too weak. The US wants any eventual resumption of enrichment-related activities by Iran to be automatically referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
The timing of the request for an exemption fueled skepticism on Iran's motive. Iran just signed an agreement with the European Union less than a week ago. In addition, the request for an exemption comes on the heels of a statement made Wednesday by Seyev Hossein Mousavian, Iran's chief negotiator with the IAEA, reports EurActiv.
'Iran will never be prepared to completely dismantle its nuclear programme,' said Seyev Hossein Mousavian.
'Iran is prepared to give all assurances that uranium enrichment activities will never be diverted [to develop weapons]. That's why we should have the right for peaceful nuclear technology and that this right should be exercised with no discrimination. That's why dismantlement is out of the question,' he said.
On Monday, before Iran made its request for an exemption on the use of centrifuges, the head of the cleric-driven parliament indicated that "deputies would press for a resumption of a controversial nuclear fuel program if the country comes under too much pressure" at the forthcoming meeting of the UN atomic energy watchdog, reports Agence France-Presse(AFP).
'The parliament is expecting that the IAEA and the European Union show that they respect their commitments during the meeting of the board of governors,' Gholamali Haddad Adel told the assembly.
'Otherwise the parliament will force the government to resume enrichment.'
Any backtracking on the initial agreement reenforces the US belief that Tehran is attempting to develop a nuclear weapon and could strengthen western demands of "proof" of compliance in Iranian intentions.
Mr. Mousavian, repeated the Iranian positon that Washington has "no right to make such claims." Iran maintains that "suspension will be only temporary and insists that it has the ultimate right to enrich uranium," reports AP.
Iran dismisses US assertions that it wants to use the technology to make weapons, saying it is interested only in generating nuclear power.
YaleGlobal-online, in an essay summarizing the concerns and conditions needed for an IAEA-Iranian compromise, emphasized how earlier this month US Secretary of State Colin Powell sharply reminded Europeans of the implications of a nuclear Iran when he alleged that the nuclear program was being coordinated with a missile delivery system.
To be sure, US Secretary of State Colin Powell's suggestion that Iran might be adapting a missile system to carry a nuclear warhead has grave implications. If true, these allegations, paired with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) evidence of Iran's illicit acquisition of nuclear material and technology, would prove that Iran is violating its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty commitment to develop nuclear technology solely for peaceful purposes. The Iranian nuclear issue would then almost have to be sent to the UN Security Council for enforcement action - a move that would expose rifts among the major powers, as well as the international system's relative fecklessness in dealing with the threat to international peace and security posed by proliferation.
Britain, Germany, and France are expected to demand that UN nuclear inspectors be allowed to go wherever they see fit in their efforts to investigate Tehran's nuclear program, reports the Guardian.
The unprecedented demand comes in a resolution drafted by the Europeans for a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency taking place this week in Vienna. If adopted by the board, the resolution will give inspectors the kind of access rights they have enjoyed only in Iraq.
Tehran has "already converted a few tons of raw uranium into the gas used as feedstock for enrichment by centrifuges," reports AP.
The conversion continued until shortly before Monday's freeze deadline, "raising doubts about Iran's interest in dispelling international concerns," says AP.
Tehran ultimately plans to run 50,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium in the central city of Natanz. Iran says the Natanz facility is meant to meet the fuel requirements of a nuclear reactor being built with Russian help that is expected to be finished next year.
For now, it is far short of that goal, possessing less than 1,000 centrifuges, most of them bought secretly through the black market network of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Kahn, the rest made domestically.
But experts estimate Iran is not far away from being able to run the 1,500 centrifuges that are needed for making the amount of highly enriched uranium - about 45 pounds - needed for one crude weapon a year.
A diplomat with nuclear expertise said that amount would be about a quarter of the quantity needed to produce the 25 kilograms - or more than 50 pounds - of weapons-grade uranium for one small nuclear weapon.
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