Iran tentatively agrees to IAEA nuclear deal

  IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei speaks to reporters.
  (AP Photo/Hans Punz)

Vienna, Austria – After three days of talks in Vienna, Iran has tentatively accepted a nuclear deal which would increase transparency in its nuclear enrichment program. However, Iranian officials did not comment on the proposal in the plan for them to export the enriched uranium out of the country. The IAEA, Russia, France and the United States had wanted to reach a confirmed agreement before leaving the talks; however Iran wished for time to review the proposal in Tehran.

According to Reuters, Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltaniehtold stated, “We have to thoroughly study this text and ... come back and reflect our opinion and suggestions or comments in order to have an amicable solution at the end of the day.” He also said, “We welcome this event; we are fully cooperating.”

The draft was written by the United Nations nuclear watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the agency’s Director General Mohamed ElBaradei set Friday as the deadline for all of the countries involved, Iran, the United States, France, and Russia, until Friday to finalize their agreements. ElBaradei remarked that the agreement was “a balanced approach to the problem.”

The basic export agreement within the draft is that Iran would allow Russia and France to complete the enrichment process of the uranium to fuel grade, then enough of it would be shipped back for them to use in their research reactor. This amount would not be enough to further enrich into weapons grade material.

Iran submitted a statement to the IAEC in September informing them of the existence of a secret nuclear enrichment facility within their country, although the United States already had knowledge of its existence for years. This plant is an underground complex approximately 30 kilometers from the city of Qom, which is one of Iran’s most sacred cities. U.S. officials state that there may be as many as 3000 centrifuges located at the facility, and it could be operational within a year.

Iran continually maintains that the plant is for the enrichment of fuel grade nuclear material to be used peacefully. However, the production capacity of the facility is inconsistent with normal fuel enrichment capacities, and is more in line with capacity for weapons production.

The uranium enrichment process is required to create useable material for nuclear power plants, as well as for atomic bombs. Weapons grade material is more difficult to enrich than is fuel grade material. Though this is an enrichment plant, and not a weapons manufacturing facility, the enrichment process is considered the most difficult part of the creation of atomic weaponry. Consequently, if weapons grade material is obtained, then the creation of a weapon would be relatively easy to complete.
 

 Copyright © 2009 by Raymond Gellner