Iran's nuclear issue could be settled peacefully: analysis

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Iran's nuclear issue could be settled peacefully: analysis

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Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said on Sunday in Tehran that Tehran may halt its uranium enrichment program, if its right to have nuclear technology is preserved, a sign of slightly change of Tehran's stance on nuclear program.

Analysts said the Iranian president's remarks indicate Tehran is willing to solve the nuclear issue through peaceful negotiations. Some Western governments have made the accusation that the nuclear program could be used to make atomic bombs if Iran is allowed to keep its civilian atomic energy program.

"We will do whatever is necessary to solve the problems and in return we're expecting our rights to be preserved, which is (the right) to have nuclear technology," Khatami said when asked by reporters if Iran was prepared to stop enriching uranium as the United States and several European countries have demanded.

"We will do what is expedient for society and the nation. We have done our best for (the) talks and exchanging views and we hope it will produce a result," he said.

He also predicted that Iran would reach an agreement on its nuclear program with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation's atomic watchdog.

It was the first indication from a Iranian leader that Iran could mothball uranium enrichment facilities which it began building in 1985. This indicated that Iran had already changed its position on the issue and would agree to solve it peacefully.

Khatami's remarks came before the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany traveled to Tehran on Tuesday on an unprecedented joint mission to try to clinch a deal to resolve therow over Iran's nuclear program. The visits came in the shadow of a looming Oct. 31 deadline set by the UN for Tehran to prove it has no atomic arms ambitions.

The three key European Union foreign ministers are expected to meet President Khatami Tuesday morning.

Last week, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei visited Tehran for the third time this year, trying to persuade Iran to sign the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which will authorize snap probes of installations by international inspectors.

Iranian officials then began formal talks with the IAEA while stressing that they still had misgivings about allowing tougher inspections, and wanted to carry on negotiating the issue.

The negotiations concerned the legal and technical aspects of the Additional Protocol.

An IAEA spokeswoman said the agency was expecting in the next few days to receive from the Iranians all the information it had been promised about Iran's nuclear program.

Reports said if Tehran failed to reach an agreement with IAEA on the inspection mission, the IAEA would refer the case to the UN Security Council in November.

But Iran's IAEA representative Ali Akbar Salehi said ElBaradei and his experts had already made their points clear and also eased Iran's concerns on some aspects, and some agreements had been reached.

That might lead Iran to sign the Additional Protocol, he said.

At the same time, the issue of whether Iran should sign the protocol had caused serious argument in Tehran.

President Khatami said that Iran should sign the protocol and invite IAEA inspectors to Iran to prove that Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful use.

They argued that the inspection would dispel the misgivings by the international community on Iran's nuclear program, and win back Iran's economic and technological communication with other countries while giving no excuse for the United States to initiate an embargo on Iran.

Conservatives insisted that Iran has no obligation to satisfy the demand of IAEA because the inspection might cause more trouble to Iran as the IAEA inspection might be used by American and Israeli special agents to steal Iran's intelligence and harm the national security of Iran.

Khatami did not rule out allowing inspections of its nuclear facilities without prior notice while insisting on respect for his country's rights to have access to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Experts also said it is still a long way to go before a real inspection on Iran's nuclear facilities can be carried out.

Even if the Iranian government would sign the protocol and invite the inspectors, the document has yet to go through a longtime legal procedure in Iran before it comes into force.

The Iranian nuclear program came into the international limelight last year when US President George W. Bush named Iran as a member of the axis of evil, along with Iraq and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Bush went to war with Iraq over weapons of mass destruction earlier this year and later made Iran a top post-Iraq priority, urging the international community to make clear "we will not tolerate" construction of a nuclear weapon by Iran.

Experts here said the flexible attitude taken by Iranian leaders and the basic agreement reached between the IAEA and Iranian officials brought hope for a peaceful resolution to the sensitive issue of Iran's nuclear program.

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