VIENNA, Sept 17: Iran said on Friday it might extend its partial freeze of uranium enrichment in order to ease Western fears about its nuclear ambitions but a senior US official dismissed this as a ploy to fend off tough U.N. action.
The call for a comprehensive freeze of Iran's enrichment plans is one of the main demands in a draft resolution that key European and US diplomats have agreed upon, but one that some members of the agency's board find difficult to accept.
"I don't reject the possibility ... of continuing the suspension for an additional one or two months, but this will be decided by the policymakers in two or three days," Hossein Mousavian, Iran's chief delegate to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said.
Mousavian, who earlier this week said Tehran would soon begin enriching uranium, was reacting to news that the United States had compromised with France, Britain and Germany on a toughly-worded IAEA resolution that calls for a suspension of Iran's enrichment programme, which could be used for weapons.
US Under secretary of State John Bolton, who accuses Iran of developing atomic weapons, said it was an obvious attempt to fend off a possible report to the U.N. Security Council in November, which could lead to economic sanctions.
"That is so transparent I do not believe anyone will fall for it," Mr Bolton said in a statement. Most members of the board find the EU trio's draft acceptable, but diplomats on the IAEA's 35-member board said that the large bloc of non-aligned states, as well as Brazil and South Africa, opposed the enrichment freeze demand and want to call separate votes on that and another item in the draft.
"The EU three are negotiating with the non-aligned members, because we want consensus on the resolution, no votes with a split," a Western diplomat on the board said.
Brazil and South Africa have enrichment programmes and fear this resolution could set a dangerous precedent, diplomats said. Diplomats said they hoped to assure Brazil and South Africa that there was no precedent by the time the board meets on Saturday to pass the resolution.
NO NUCLEAR ACTIVITY: IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters the agency had seen no sign of nuclear-related activity at a site in Iran called Parchin that several US officials said may be linked to secret atom bomb research.
"We are aware of this new site that has been referred to. We do not have any indication that this site has nuclear-related activities. However, we continue to investigate this and other sites (in Iran)," he said.
Mr ElBaradei also dismissed the US allegation that he had suppressed information about Parchin in his latest progress report on inspections in Iran. "We do not hype facts. We do not colour facts. Nor are we planning to have other people second-guessing our conclusions. Nor are we planning to outsource our investigation," he said. -Reuters