UN sets deadline for Iran nuclear inspection

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has set the date for the inspection of Iran’s newly revealed uranium processing facility for October 25.

Mohamed ElBaradei said today at a press conference in Tehran that talks have been successful.

Mr ElBaradei said it is necessary to send inspectors to ensure the facility “is for peaceful purposes”.

He welcomed the move from a policy of confrontation between Iran and the Western powers to one of co-operation and transparency.

Revelations that Iran had a second, previously unknown, site to refine uranium has raised new international fears of the purposes of the nation’s nuclear program.

The US and its allies say Iran’s program is seeking nuclear weapons while Iran says it is for peaceful purposes.

Mr ElBaradei said: “I see that we are at a critical moment, I see that we are shifting gears from confrontation into transparency and cooperation.”

“I hope and trust Iran will be helpful with our inspectors so it is possible for us to be able to assess our verification of the facility as early as possible,” he added, while sitting next to Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s nuclear programme.

The revelation that Iran has been building a new nuclear plant near the holy city of Qom has heightened the concern of the US and many of its allies, which suspect Tehran is using a civilian nuclear programme as a cover for developing a weapons-making capability.

Iran denies such an aim, saying it only wants to generate energy.

US president Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain accused Iran of keeping the construction hidden from the world for years. Mr Obama said last month that Iran’s actions “raised grave doubts” about its promise to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes only.

Mr ElBaradei admitted that the International Atomic Energy Agency has “concerns about Iran’s future intentions,” but that added that “the agency has no concrete proof of an ongoing weapons programme in Iran,” he added.

“We need transparency on the part of Iran and we need cooperation on the part of the international community,” he said.

Iran agreed to allow UN inspectors into the facility at a landmark meeting with six world powers near Geneva on Thursday that put nuclear talks back on track and included the highest-level bilateral contact with the US in three decades.

Iranian officials argue that under IAEA safeguard rules, a member nation is required to inform the UN agency about the existence of a nuclear facility six months before introducing nuclear material into the machines. Iran says the new facility won’t be operational for 18 months, and so it has not violated any IAEA requirements.

The IAEA has said that Iran is obliged under the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to notify the organisation when it begins to design a new nuclear facility.

Suspicion that Iran’s newly revealed nuclear site was meant for military purposes was heightened by its location, at least partly inside a mountain and next to a military base.

Mr ElBaradei also discussed a plan to allow Russia to take some of Iran’s processed uranium and enrich it to higher levels to fuel a research reactor in Tehran.

He said that there would be a meeting October 19 in Vienna with Iran, the US, France and Russia to discuss the details of that agreement.