Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Iran already a member of World’s Nuclear Club and plans to build heavy water reactor

Iran Already a Member of World’s Nuclear Club


TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) -– Secretary of Iran's Supreme Council for National Security, Hassan Rowhani, announced on Sunday that the international community should soon accept Iran as a member of the world’s nuclear club and call on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to close its file.

"The international community should accept Iran in the world nuclear club," Rowhani, who has headed Iran's nuclear negotiations, told an annual session of the Assembly of Experts.

Rowhani, who was speaking on the eve of a meeting by the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors on Monday, said Iran has legitimate right to use nuclear energy for civilian purposes.

Iran insists its network of nuclear facilities is geared to produce atomic power, not bombs.

Rowhani also called on IAEA board of governors to finish a 13-month probe of Iran’s nuclear program.

"We must arrive at a stage where the board of governors would totally close the file on Iran's peaceful nuclear activities and take the issue out of its agenda," he told the assembly, a body of senior clerics who elect the Supreme Leader.

Rowhani said it was highly unlikely for the UN Security Council to impose possible sanctions on Iran.

"So far we have succeeded in thwarting the U.S. plots, and do not think the U.S. is in a position to send our dossier to the Security Council," he said.

Rowhani said Tehran's agreement late last year to sign the NPT Additional Protocol allowing inspectors to carry out more intrusive and snap checks of its nuclear facilities had foiled the U.S. plots.

He said Iran foiled the plot by signing up to tougher inspections, which came because of a "national consensus".

The United States has already signaled it will not seek to have Iran condemned in the Security Council. Speaking in Lisbon Thursday, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton nevertheless said, "We are absolutely determined not to reduce the pressure on Iran."

Britain, France and Germany in October struck a deal with Iran to cooperate with the IAEA, and are still stressing the path of "constructive engagement".

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/8/2004&Cat=4&Num=004



Iran plans to build heavy water reactor
07-04-2004, 12:06


Iran is to begin work in June on building a heavy water reactor which could be used as part of a fuel cycle to produce bomb-grade plutonium, said diplomats in Vienna.

"Iran is to announce soon that it will be beginning work in June on a heavy water research reactor in Arak," 200 kilometres southwest of Tehran, a diplomat close to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told The AFP.

IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei returned to Vienna Wednesday from Tehran, where he had recieved a promise from the Iranian leadership to adhere to a timetable to finally answer charges it is trying secretly to develop nuclear weapons.

The reactor to be built at Arak would not be in violation of safeguards which the IAEA enforces under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the diplomat said. But he added it could send a "bad political signal" from Iran to the international community.

Iran has said the Arak reactor would be for research and the production of radioisotopes for medical and industrial use.

On Tuesday, Secretary for Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Hassan Rowhani said the recent agreements with ElBaradei indicated that the remaining issues with the IAEA would be settled in the next two months.

Talking to reporters following his meeting with Elbaradei, he said the next meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in June would be more positive for Iran than the previous one held in March.

Evaluating the process of the negotiations as positive, he voiced his hope that the final settlement of the case would occur in the near future.

On his meeting with Elbaradei, Rowhani said that some points and questions were put forward by the IAEA head during a three-hour meeting and a timetable was worked out as to how and when the issues would be considered.

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