Iran Lauds Talks With UN Watchdog

By Nasser Karimi 
The Associated Press
December 13, 2007
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/13/AR2007121300427_pf.html



TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Thursday that talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog on investigating traces of weapons-grade uranium found at a Tehran university were constructive, state media reported.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the country's envoy to the U.N. agency, said Iran answered and explained all questions from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Technical talks about the source of contamination were held in a constructive atmosphere, Soltanieh was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying. Another step was taken in the direction of settling the remaining problems surrounding Iran's nuclear issue.

He provided no details but said more talks could follow after IAEA reviews the case.

The talks with the IAEA team, which began Monday in the Iranian capital, focused on the discovery of traces of weapons-grade uranium at a technological faculty of a Tehran university. It's believed this was the first time the incident was discussed.

It is not clear how or when the find of the uranium traces was made.

The university contamination case comes in the wake of a U.S. intelligence report last week that concluded Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in late 2003 and had not resumed it since. Tehran says it never had a weapons program, insisting its nuclear activities aim only to generate electricity.

The U.S. is pushing for a new, third round of U.N. sanctions over Tehran's refusal to stop enrichment. Iran maintains it would never give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel.

U.N. diplomats said Wednesday the Security Council will not take up new sanctions against Iran until early next year because of serious differences between the U.S. and key European nations who want tough measures and Russia and China who don't.

The delay in the council's consideration of a third sanctions resolution followed a 90-minute telephone discussion Tuesday of political directors from the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany that highlighted the divide among the key players.

I think it unlikely, unfortunately, that we will be able to make progress during 2007, Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sauers told reporters. We will come back to this issue in 2008.

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Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.