November 18, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 22, 1424

BRUSSELS, Nov 17: The European Union’s top diplomat said on Monday Iran had been “honest” in its nuclear dealings with the international community but must now implement a deal to open up its nuclear sites to snap inspections.

Javier Solana, speaking ahead of talks in Brussels with Iran’s top national security official Hassan Rowhani, also said he expected the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to stop short of calling for the UN Security Council to rebuke the Islamic republic at its meeting on Nov 20.

“They have been honest. Let’s see if they continue all the way to the end,” Solana told reporters. “We still have some hurdles to pass, but we have passed some very important ones.”

The remarks appeared to have widened the split between the United States and Europe as US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Mr Solana’s evaluation had gone too far.

“I wouldn’t have gone quite as far,” Mr Powell told reporters in Washington.

He reaffirmed the US position that an IAEA report on Iranian compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) had proved Washington’s contention that Tehran was seeking to develop atomic weapons — an assertion not contained in the report and apparently not shared in Europe.

“It confirms what the United States has been saying for some time, and which we believe, that the Iranian nuclear development programme was for more than just the production of power,” Mr Powell said.

“It had an intent to produce a nuclear weapon and I think that the information that has come forward establishes that,” he said after meeting at the State Department with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

That history “should cause all of us to have serious concerns about judging too quickly whether or not we have received a full and complete story from the Iranians”, he said.

MEETING: The IAEA board of governors will discuss a report on Iran’s nuclear activities by the UN agency’s chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, on Thursday.

The report is expected to state that Iran has violated international nuclear safeguards but that there is so far no evidence it is trying to make the bomb.

It also notes increased Iranian cooperation with the IAEA, secured late last month during a visit to Tehran by the foreign ministers of the EU’s big three — Britain, France and Germany.

The EU trio won key concessions from Iran, including the country’s full disclosure of its past nuclear activities, a pledge to accept tougher inspections and a suspension of the enrichment of uranium.

But a hardline US is pushing for Iran to be reprimanded and taken to the UN.

Such a move could expose Iran to sanctions, and Iran has said it could force a U-turn in its current policy of cooperating with the IAEA.—AFP