Chief of U.N. Nuclear Agency to Meet With Iran’s Leaders 

January 8, 2008
AP
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/world/middleeast/08nuke.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

VIENNA (AP) — Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency, will visit Iran this week, his spokeswoman announced Monday. 

Diplomats, meanwhile, said Iran had begun sharing information about past programs that the United States says were attempts to make weapons.

Dr. ElBaradei will be in Tehran on Friday and Saturday “with a view of resolving all remaining outstanding issues and enabling the agency to provide assurance about Iran’s past and present activities,” said Melissa Fleming, his spokeswoman.

She said Dr. ElBaradei would meet with top officials, but gave no details. But a diplomat familiar with Dr. ElBaradei’s itinerary said he was expected to meet with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was confidential.

The trip comes at a time of renewed efforts by the United States to keep the pressure on Iran on the nuclear issue.

A recent United States intelligence assessment that Iran had a clandestine weapons program but that it stopped working on it four years ago has hurt American efforts to have the United Nations Security Council impose a third set of sanctions on Iran for failing to halt enrichment.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The United States and its allies say Iran could use its enriched uranium to make nuclear payloads for missiles.

An Israeli Defense Ministry official said Monday that Israel would urge President Bush, who is to visit the Middle East this week, to reassess the American conclusion that Iran stopped nuclear arms development in 2003.

The defense minister, Ehud Barak, is expected to tell Mr. Bush that Israeli intelligence analysts have concluded that Iran is still trying to produce nuclear arms, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was barred from publicly commenting on the talks in advance.

Part of past evidence presented by the United States to close allies and the I.A.E.A. to back its accusations was material on a computer reportedly smuggled out of Iran. In 2005, United States intelligence assessed that information as indicating that Iran had been working on details of nuclear weapons.

Iran has long dismissed such claims as propaganda and refused to talk about them. But on Monday, diplomats familiar with the Iran file said Iran had begun substantial discussions with I.A.E.A. experts on some issues linked to “weaponization,” as part of the agency’s investigation of Iran’s nuclear activities.



Home 
World U.S. N.Y. / Region Business Technology Science Health Sports Opinion Arts Style Travel Jobs Real Estate Automobiles Back to Top 
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 
Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map