TEHRAN, Sept 6: Iran’s foreign minister said on Saturday that his country may soon agree to tougher nuclear inspections if ongoing talks on the issue with the UN’s atomic energy watchdog removed “ambiguities”.

“With explanations and the removal of ambiguities from the IAEA, Iran will in the near future will sign the additional protocol,” Kamal Kharazi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), with major international backing, is pressing Iran to quickly sign and ratify an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which would allow unannounced checks of its nuclear facilities by UN inspectors.

Iran, which has dismissed widespread suspicions it is using an atomic energy programme as a cover for nuclear weapons development, has maintained that it needs certain points of the protocol clarified before it can sign.

Mr Kharazi, who was speaking just days ahead of a key IAEA meeting in Vienna, gave no indication on how the talks on the protocol were progressing.

However, the foreign minister did call on the agency’s board of governors not to bow to US pressure when they discuss Iran’s nuclear programme in the coming days, saying he hoped their final decision on how to move ahead on the Iran dossier was “professional and not politicised”.

In separate comments to the student news agency ISNA, Mr Kharazi explained that “the protocol would need to be ratified in parliament, and for this it is necessary for the MPs to be informed.”

“They have to know the content and the necessity of this protocol, what obligations it has for the Islamic republic and what problems it could solve. The important question that we have is that by signing this protocol, would the problems and bilateral misunderstandings be solved or would Iran still be faced with other pressures?” he said.

“We hope the US will not put pressure on the agency and members of the board of governors to take a political stance,” he added.

Also speaking on the nuclear tensions ahead of the IAEA meeting was the powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who in comments carried by state media described the US pressure against Iran over its atomic programme was “satanic and oppressive”.

The US ambassador to the IAEA said on Thursday that Washington will push for “a strong resolution” on Iran’s suspect nuclear programme at the Vienna meeting, which begins on Monday.

“The US goal is to pass a strong resolution that will support the IAEA’s efforts to get to the bottom of Iran’s nuclear programme,” the US ambassador to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, said.

The resolution should “stress the urgency of Iran cooperating fully with the IAEA, which it has yet to do,” he added.

But he stopped short of saying that Washington and its allies on the IAEA’s 35-member board of governors would push for a resolution calling it in non-compliance with the treaty. Such a resolution could send the matter to the UN Security Council, which could in turn impose tough sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Washington alleges Iran is violating the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and secretly trying to acquire nuclear arms, while France fears it could succeed within a few years.

Britain, which is embroiled in a diplomatic row with Iran, has warned it to sign an additional protocol to the NPT to allow surprise visits to its nuclear sites and is expected to take a hard line at the meeting.

But Western diplomats said they would stop short of asking the 35-member IAEA board of governors to adopt a resolution declaring Iran in non-compliance with the nuclear treaty. —AFP