Iran suspends nuclear programme

Iran has given the UN a written promise to fully suspend uranium enrichment, according to diplomats and Iranian officials, in an apparent bid to dispel suspicions that Tehran wants to build a nuclear bomb.

The move appeared to indicate that Iran had dropped demands to modify a tentative deal worked out on November 7 with European negotiators, diplomats said.

Tehran has now agreed to continue freezing enrichment – the process to make either nuclear fuel or the core for nuclear weapons – and also to suspend related activities, diplomats said.

“Basically it’s a full suspension,” said one of the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s what the Europeans were looking for.”

Shortly after diplomats revealed the Iranian move late yesterday, Tehran’s top nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, confirmed that his country was giving its “basic agreement” to a temporary suspension.

“We accept suspension as a voluntary measure on the basis of agreement with the European Union,” Mousavian said on Iranian state television, emphasising that his country viewed the decision as a “confidence building” move and not a “legal obligation on the part of Iran”.

As part of the agreement, “Europe will support Iran’s joining the international group of states possessing the ability to manufacture nuclear fuel” once the suspension ends, Mousavian said, signalling again that Iran viewed the freeze as temporary.

Washington has argued that Iran’s enrichment activities are part of a nuclear arms program. Iran says it only wants to employ the technology to generate power.

The diplomat said that Iran had also fulfilled a key part of the deal by informing the UN nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – of its decision.

Iran’s stated intentions will be included in a report prepared by IAEA head Mohamed El Baradei.

The IAEA delayed circulating the report on Iran’s nuclear activities to diplomats working with the agency to give French, German and British negotiators more time to work out differences with their Iranian counterparts over the weekend.

A diplomat close to the agency said the report would now be released today.