Diplomats See Possible Iran Compromise

Iran has signaled it may grant access to sites linked to possible work on nuclear weapons and other demands from the U.N. atomic watchdog agency to avoid referral to the Security Council, diplomats said Tuesday. The diplomats, who demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media about the sensitive negotiations, said a high-ranking IAEA delegation was in Tehran on Tuesday to discuss the issue with Iranian officials. Besides seeking access to two military sites, the agency also wants to interview military officials thought to be associated with what Iran says is a purely civilian nuclear program. The agency is also asking for documents linked to the country's uranium enrichment program.

Officials from the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency view those three outstanding issues as crucial to their nearly three-year investigation meant to test Iranian assertions that more than 18 years of clandestine nuclear activities first discovered in 2002 were geared solely toward generating power. Iranian foot dragging on those points contributed to a decision last month by the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors to find the country in violation of provisions of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The board also passed a resolution clearing the way for it to refer Tehran to the Security Council as early as next month. The diplomats, who are accredited to the agency, said that — after signals from Tehran that it was ready to compromise — all three points were being discussed between Iranian officials and the IAEA delegation, led by Olli Heinonen, an agency deputy director general.

Iran strongly denies assertions from the United States and its allies that its nuclear program is a cover for a weapons program or that its military is involved in nuclear activities. Among the unanswered questions, according to an IAEA report last month, were gaps in the documented development of Iran's centrifuge program used in uranium enrichment — and in what was received, and when, from the black market network headed by the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan. It also said Tehran continued denying access to IAEA experts at Lavizan-Shian near Tehran, where the agency believes Iran has stored equipment that can be used both for peaceful and nuclear weapons-related purposes. It said investigators have also been kept out of Parchin, the site of alleged experiments linked to nuclear weapons.

Sentiment for the IAEA resolution on Security Council referral was fed after Iran resumed uranium conversion — a precursor of enrichment — in August, preventing talks with Britain, France and Germany meant to cool suspicions about Tehran's nuclear agenda. Russia, which is opposed to Security Council involvement, on Tuesday repeated its view that the Iran issue should be dealt with by the IAEA. "We do not want these controls, this inspection work, to be interrupted," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference in Paris alongside his French counterpart, Philippe Douste-Blazy. Douste-Blazy said France continued to hope for dialogue with Tehran.


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