Iran boasted Tuesday it had humiliated the United States at a board meeting of the UN atomic watchdog by agreeing to what it reiterated was only a temporary freeze of its suspect nuclear programme. "The Islamic republic has not renounced the nuclear fuel cycle, will never renounce it and will use it," top national security official and nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani told a news conference. "We have proved that, in an international institution, we are capable of isolating the United States. And that is a great victory," he added.
Rowhani, who smiled and joked with reporters during a nearly two-hour-long press conference, claimed that the US envoy to the IAEA "was enraged and in tears, and everybody said that the Americans had failed and we had won". He also asserted that Iran had only agreed to the suspension for the duration of negotiations with the European trio that should yield lucrative incentives for the Islamic republic. Iran and the European trio are to begin talks in December on a package of rewards to Iran for suspending enrichment, the key process using centrifuges to make fuel for nuclear reactors -- or the explosive core of atomic bombs. "The suspension will only last as long as the negotiations. It should be a question of months and not years. We should not feel during the negotiations that they are trying to gain time," he said.
Europe is ready to negotiate on trade, transfers of peaceful nuclear technology and help on security issues. But the talks will also be aimed at producing "objective guarantees" that Iran will not divert its nuclear programme towards making an atomic bomb. Both sides admit this will be a tough task in the light of Iran's determination to produce its own nuclear fuel.
Enrichment remains at the heart of the stand-off at the IAEA. Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium to low levels, so as to produce fuel for a series of atomic power stations designed to free up its huge oil and gas resources for export. And it zealously guards its "right" under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to have a peaceful nuclear programme, including the full fuel cycle. But there are fears that Iran's fuel cycle drive belies an effort to acquire the "strategic option" to build a bomb if circumstances dictate it. The United States insists the country already has a covert weapons plan. "The negotiations with the Europeans will be complicated. There will be highs and lows. But we will go into the talks with a sincere wish to succeed, and we hope the Europeans will be the same," said Rowhani, a mid-ranking cleric and secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
The IAEA is continuing to investigate Iran. Its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said that while no diversion of nuclear materials for weapons purposes has been detected, he could not rule out the possibility of covert activity. The IAEA adoption of the resolution ended an intense week of back-door talks to save the overall agreement between Iran and the Europeans. Under the compromise, Iran dropped its demand that 20 centrifuges - the machine that spin at supersonic speeds to enrich uranium gas - be exempted from the deal for research purposes. In return, the IAEA board passed what Iran has hailed as the most conciliatory resolution since the stand-off began in early 2003. In the wake of the toned-down resolution, the White House called on the international community to "remain vigilant" and has not ruled out making a unilateral Security Council referral. |