October 2, 2003	Thursday	Sha’aban 5, 1424

TEHRAN, Oct 1: Iran’s government declared Wednesday that it was determined to prevent a row with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) being sent to the UN Security Council, vowing to show greater transparency on the eve of a crucial round of inspections.

“This question must not be sent to the Security Council. This must be prevented,” Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

Government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh echoed the view, telling reporters that “we do not want this question to go to the Security Council and will take all measures to reach an accord with the agency.”

But while promising “greater cooperation” with UN inspectors probing Iran’s nuclear energy programme, Kharazi also remained circumspect on demands the country sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) allowing unlimited and surprise visits to suspect sites.

“The official position of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the additional protocol ... is for greater cooperation with the IAEA. We are determined to have an active and transparent cooperation with the agency,” Kharazi said.

For his part, Ramazanzadeh said the protocol was still being examined by “different committees at different levels”, although he was quick to add that the question of following the example of North Korea by quitting the NPT altogether — advocated by some hardliners here — “was not the order of the day”.

Aside from urging Iran to unconditionally sign, ratify and implement the additional protocol, the IAEA has set October 31 as a deadline for Iran to prove it is not secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Iran has also been asked to cease uranium enrichment, following the discovery during previous visits by IAEA inspectors of traces of highly enriched uranium.

Tehran fiercely denies allegations that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and asserts it is merely exercising its right to develop nuclear power to meet future energy needs.

Officials have also argued that the traces of enriched uranium came into the country on imported equipment.

But while vowing to show transparency, officials also left it unclear whether the Islamic republic would satisfy the ultimatum, issued on September 12 by the Vienna-Based IAEA’s board of governors after heavy US lobbying.

A string of top officials here have branded the resolution as part of a US-Israeli plot to undermine the nearly 25-year-old Islamic regime.

A failure by Iran to satisfy the agency’s demands could see the question forwarded to the UN Security Council.

In his comments, Kharazi did not refer to the resolution, leaving the question open as to if Iran would seek to comply with the demands.

Also speaking on the issue Wednesday, Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi only said that “we hope the inspection will show that Iran is sincere and has nothing to hide.”

“Iran will make a new diplomatic effort to express our point of view. This is one of the most serious challenges we have faced since the revolution,” he added.

On Tuesday, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei urged Iran to provide “full disclosure” of its nuclear programme and described the impending visit of inspectors as “decisive”.

Inspections of the nuclear sites are to take place throughout October right up to the deadline at the end of the month.

UN EXPERTS: UN experts travelled to Iran on a key mission to inspect nuclear sites and verify whether the republic is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

The experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were to meet in Tehran on Thursday with Iranian officials to discuss modalities for the inspections to be carried out ahead of an October 31 deadline given to Iran to come clean on its nuclear programme.

“We do expect that we will make a lot of progress with the full cooperation of Iran and that’s why I’m going,” said Pierre Goldschmidt, an IAEA deputy director general who oversees the department of safeguards.

Goldschmidt said he expected Iranian officials to “have a very important message for us” on extending cooperation “and that we can progress very rapidly because as you know we have only a few weeks to make progress.”

Goldschmidt said he would first seek to resolve “technical matters” with Iranian officials and then IAEA “experts and inspectors” would be following him into Tehran “very rapidly and we’ll be there for the rest of the month.”—AFP