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Iran sets terms for UN nuclear checks
 Iran is ready to ask its parliament to ratify an accord allowing UN inspectors to resume snap checks of its nuclear facilities on certain conditions, Iran's embassy in Paris said on Friday. The Iranian statement, which came the day after France accused Iran of pursuing a secret military nuclear programme, sketched out a three-stage process to end a standoff with the international community over Iran's nuclear programme. Ratification of the Additional Protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which gives the UN nuclear watchdog greater powers to inspect suspected nuclear facilities, has been a key demand made of Tehran by Western nations. Iran, which began implementing the protocol in 2003, but has never presented it to lawmakers for ratification, stopped applying it this month after the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted to report Tehran to the UN Security Council. The embassy statement linked the new offer to the West accepting its use of "modern centrifuges, proposed by some US and British scientists, which permit only limited enrichment. "If such guarantees were accepted, Iran would agree to submit to parliament for ratification the additional protocol," it said. Posted by: Fred 2006-02-18 |
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