The Hindu : International : IAEA discusses Iran, South Korea issues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 27, 2004

International

International

IAEA discusses Iran, South Korea issues

VIENNA (AUSTRIA), NOV. 26. Delegates at a key U.N. meeting worked to resolve a growing dispute over Iran's interpretation of a freeze on uranium enrichment as they prepared to deal with another matter Friday — South Korea and its illicit plutonium and uranium experiments.

Delegates to the board meeting of the International Atomic Energy agency said the overwhelming sentiment was to have meeting chairwoman Ingrid Hall of Canada rebuke South Korea in a statement.

`Mistakes made'

While the IAEA viewed the South Korean violations as ``a matter of serious concern ... we are also saying that we have not seen any continuation of these experiments,'' the IAEA head, Mohamed ElBaradei, said at the start of the board meeting on Thursday. Y.J. Choi, South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister, told the board ``mistakes have been made'' but insisted scientists involved in the experiments did not notify the Government.

Two of the secret South Korean nuclear experiments revealed earlier this year produced minute amounts of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium, but an IAEA report says there was no evidence they were applied to an arms programme.

Unlike South Korea, the issue of Iran threatened to drag on into the weekend, which would force an extension of the meeting past its planned close on Friday.

A report summarising 1 1/2 years of IAEA investigations says the agency remains unable to determine if nearly two decades of Iranian nuclear activities were purely peaceful or if the Government had a secret weapons agenda. But the main issue is Iran's interpretation of its deal with the European Union to freeze all activities linked to uranium enrichment, which can produce both nuclear fuel and the material for the core of atomic warheads.

Arm-twisting

Iran on Wednesday continued to demand that it be allowed to operate some centrifuges — although the E.U. says the November 7 deal mandates a suspension of all activities related to enrichment, including running the machines that spin gas into fuel-level or weapons-grade uranium.

One of the delegates, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described Iran's move as an attempt at arm twisting to wrest concessions on the language of a resolution on how to police the freeze.

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