Opinion - News Analysis   

Iran and the IAEA

R. Ramachandran

IN A report dated November 18 on the Iran nuclear issue, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, has said: "Since [the time of the September 2005 Report], Iran has been more forthcoming in providing access to additional documentation related to the 1987 offer [of centrifuge components] and permitting interviews with individuals who had been involved in discussions with the procurement network." This report will be placed at the November 24 meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors.

According to the report, among the documents that Iran voluntarily submitted to the IAEA relating to the 1987 offer "was one related to the procedural requirements for the reduction of UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) to metal in small quantities, and on the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms... "

The report itself does not make any significant remark about this particular document. But it is this part of the report that has got selectively leaked to the Western media, which have been only too quick to level the charge that this was a blueprint for a warhead design and Iran was, in fact, pursuing a weapons programme.

With respect to this document, Iran had apparently stated that it had been provided on the initiative of the procurement network and not at the request of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran. As was pointed out in an earlier report (The Hindu, Nov. 22), the fact that Iran had voluntarily submitted this document does not give much credence to the charge that this constituted any evidence for Iran's weapons programme.

The 1987 offer has been under investigation by the IAEA and has already been discussed in the director-general's report of January 2005. Iran had already stated that only components of one or two centrifuges were procured from the network following this 1987 offer made by a foreign intermediary. All other components were procured from other suppliers and these had been declared to the Agency in October 2003.

The new documents that Iran has submitted to the Agency after September pertain to this 1987 offer and include detailed drawings of the P-1 centrifuge components and assemblies; technical specifications supporting component manufacture and centrifuge assembly; and technical documents relating to centrifuge operational performance.

They also include cascade schematic drawings for various sizes of R&D cascades, together with the equipment needed for cascade operation. The documents also included a drawing showing a cascade layout for six cascades of 168 machines each and a small plant of 2000 centrifuges arranged in the same hall. And, of course, the one about machining small quantities of uranium in hemispherical shapes. All these documents are in the process of being assessed, the DG's report has noted.

"Very little new information has been made available regarding the events preceding the mid-1990s offer," the report notes, however. Apparently, Iran has maintained that no documentation on the offer exists apart from the shipping documents confirming the delivery of the P-1 components during the 1994-95 period. Iran has also not provided any additional information or documentation to support its statement that it did not pursue any work on the P-2 design between 1995 and 2002, one of the unresolved issues in the Iranian programme. The Agency, according to the report, is still in the process of verifying Iran's statement from other sources.

The report notes with satisfaction that Iran, as per its commitment in November 2003, has been allowing complimentary accesses to IAEA officials as if Additional Protocol was in force and access to the Parchin site has enabled drawing of environmental samples. The Agency did not observe any unusual activities in the buildings visited. Its final assessment is pending the results of the environmental sample analysis.

In the light of this overall positive assessment of Iran's cooperation and the fact that the European Union is keen to pursue negotiations with Iran on the offer for siting the enrichment facility in Russia, it would appear that the Iran issue is unlikely to be put to vote at the IAEA tomorrow.

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