TEHRAN, Iran — Saying Iran appeared to be moving away from confrontation with the West, the head of the United Nations nuclear enforcement agency announced Sunday that Tehran had agreed to a date this month for international inspectors to visit what until recently had been a covert underground uranium enrichment plant.
The decision to open the plant to outside scrutiny on Oct. 25 was a concession by Tehran to diffuse Western criticism over the intent and scope of Iran’s nuclear program. In a meeting with world powers last week, Iranian negotiators agreed in principle to grant the International Atomic Energy Agency access to the facility, which President Barack Obama has criticized as a “direct challenge” to global nonproliferation.
“I see that we are shifting gears from confrontation into transparency and cooperation,” said Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the atomic energy agency, who arrived in Tehran on Saturday for talks in what he characterized as a critical moment.
“I hope and trust Iran will be helpful with our inspectors,” he said, “so it is possible for us to be able to assess our verification of the facility as early as possible.”
ElBaradei spoke at a news conference with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. Their appearance together came after a week of public condemnations and closed-door diplomacy over the Fordu uranium enrichment plant being built beneath the mountains near the city Qom.
The U.N. says Iran violated international law by not notifying the U.N. agency when construction started more than three years ago.
Iran’s contention was that disclosure of the Fordu plant was not required until at least six months before nuclear materials were moved into the facility, which is expected to house 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium. The discrepancy centers on a change in transparency guidelines that U.N. officials say Iran has ignored.
The U.S., France and Britain have charged that Iran kept the plant a secret to deceive inspectors of its goal to build nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear program is designed to generate energy for civilian purposes.
Tehran has repeatedly misled inspectors and brushed aside U.N. orders that it stop enriching uranium. ElBaradei said, however, that there is “no concrete proof” Iran has an ongoing weapons program.
“There are allegations that Iran has conducted weaponization studies,” he said. “These are issues that we are still looking into.”
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