nuclear-news

IAEA and Iran will clinch a deal next month

IAEA confident of nuclear deal with Iran http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/iaea-confident-of-nuclear-deal-with-iran/story-fn3dxix6-1226537224857 BY: SIMON STURDEE  AAP December 14, 2012   THE UN nuclear agency has expressed confidence that it will clinch a deal with Iran next month under which Tehran will at last answer “credible” evidence that it has conducted atomic weapons research.

Herman Nackaerts, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief
inspector, said after what he called “good meetings” in Tehran that
the deal would include access to the Parchin base where the agency
suspects explosives tests applicable for nuclear weapons took place.

Such a breakthrough, if it really happens, could indicate that Iran,
feeling the pinch from massive sanctions pressure, may give ground in
parallel diplomatic efforts with six world powers stalled since June.
But that is a big “if”, experts say.”We have agreed to meet again on
16 January next year, where we expect to finalise the structured
approach and start implementing it then shortly after that,” Nackaerts
told reporters at Vienna airport, saying Parchin was “part of” the
arrangement under negotiation.

On Thursday, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was
quoted by state media as saying in typically upbeat fashion that the
meeting was “constructive, positive, and good progress has been made”.

The IAEA wants Iran to address substantively a mass of what the agency
calls “overall, credible” evidence set out in a major 2011 report that
until 2003, and possibly since, Iran did weapons research.

Iran denies seeking or ever having sought nuclear weapons, and says
its program is exclusively peaceful.

So far, including in a string of previous fruitless meetings between
the IAEA and Iran this year both in Tehran and Vienna, Iran has
rejected the alleged evidence outright.

This is because the bulk is from foreign intelligence agencies,
including from arch foe Israel, the Middle East’s sole if undeclared
nuclear-armed state which has refused to rule out bombing Iran to stop
it also getting the bomb.

The IAEA has zeroed in on Parchin near Tehran because its information
on activities there is “independent”, such as from commercially
available satellite imagery or an unnamed “foreign expert”.

Tehran also says the IAEA has already visited the site near Tehran
twice in 2005. The agency counters that since then, it has received
additional information that makes it want to go back.

December 15, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international