VIENNA, Austria – Iran notified the U.N. nuclear watchdog in writing Sunday that it would suspend uranium enrichment and related activities to dispel suspicions that it was trying to build nuclear arms.
With its move, Iran appeared to have dropped demands to modify a tentative deal worked out on Nov. 7 with European negotiators, agreeing instead to continue freezing enrichment – the process to make either nuclear fuel or the core for nuclear weapons – and also to suspend related activities, diplomats said.
“Basically it’s a full suspension,” said one of the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s what the Europeans were looking for.”
Shortly after diplomats revealed the Iranian move, Tehran’s top nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, confirmed that his country was giving its “basic agreement” to a temporary suspension.
“We accept suspension as a voluntary measure on the basis of agreement with the European Union,” Mousavian said on Iranian state television, emphasizing that his country viewed the move as a concession for “confidence building” and not a “legal obligation.”
As part of the agreement, “Europe will support Iran’s joining the international group of states possessing the ability to manufacture nuclear fuel” once the suspension ends, Mousavian said, signaling yet again that Iran viewed the freeze as temporary.
State Department spokeswoman Darla Jordan said Sunday: “We are awaiting a briefing by the EU three on Monday. We continue to believe that Iran has to abide by the IAEA Board of Governors’ resolution.”
Washington has argued that Iran’s enrichment activities are in violation of its international treaty obligations and part of a nuclear arms program. The United States has called for the indefinite suspension if not an outright scrapping of Iran’s domestic enrichment program. Iran says it wants to master the technology only to generate power.
The diplomat said Iran had also fulfilled a key part of the deal by formally informing the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency – the International Atomic Energy Agency – of its decision.
That cleared the way for inclusion of Iranian intentions in a report prepared by agency head Mohamed ElBaradei.
As negotiators for France, Germany and Britain struggled with Iranian counterparts to bridge differences on the weekend, the agency had delayed the report on Iran’s nuclear activities scheduled for limited circulation to diplomats accredited to the agency. A diplomat close to the agency said the report would be released today.
The agency study on nearly two decades of clandestine activities that the United States says is a secret weapons program is being prepared for review by the agency’s 35-nation board of governors when they meet Nov. 25. Based on the report, they will decide on actions that include possibly referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which could lead to sanctions.
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