TEHRAN, July 2 (UPI) -- In an apparent move to ease the pressures on the country, Iran has invited the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, to travel to Tehran next Wednesday for talks with Iranian officials.
But just how far in negotiations will Iran go?
A spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Khalil Mousavi, said that ElBaradei and his accompanying delegation were to hold negotiations with Iran's nuclear chief, Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh, and other state officials on the "issue of bolstering cooperation between Iran and the IAEA," according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
The IAEA chief was in Iran in February for a regular inspection visit.
Mousavi further said that ElBaradei would stay in Iran for one day but the delegation could stay longer so as to inspect "certain Iranian nuclear sites based on an IAEA-IAEO agreement."
Echoing previous claims by Iranian officials, Mousavi stressed that his country's nuclear activities were "already under the close supervision of the IAEA" in accordance with its Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments.
Elaborating on the purpose of the visit, the Iranian news agency IRNA, quoted ElBaradei spokesman, Mark Gwozdecky, as having said that the IAEA chief would particularly focus on concerns raised in his recent report to the agency's board of governors and in a subsequent statement by the board's chairman.
In the statement issued last month, the IAEA said it expected Iran "to grant the agency all access deemed necessary," to defuse suspicions Tehran has a clandestine weapons program. The agency urged Iran to allow more inspections and to stop enriching nuclear fuel.
ElBaradei also asked the Islamic republic to accept a new protocol that would give the agency more powers to inspect its nuclear activities, as well as to permit monitors to take environmental samples at a location where it has allegedly enriched uranium -- a possible step in producing nuclear weapons.
In February, Iran officially announced it had achieved the technology to process uranium needed for future nuclear power plants. Uranium is being mined in Saghand area, 120 miles from the central city of Yazd.
Moreover, Iran says its target is to reach a 6,000-7,000-megawatt capacity of nuclear-generated electricity in 20 years.
Critics of Iran say that with its abundance of oil and natural gas resources, it has no credible reason to turn to nuclear energy. Iran counters by saying it has a rising demand for energy and its hydrocarbon reserves are becoming overstretched.
With the help of Russia, Iran is building its first nuclear reactor near the southern port of Bushehr, which is expected to be commissioned by either late 2003 or early 2004.
The United States, at the forefront of accusations that Tehran is running a secret nuclear weapons program, has repeatedly objected to Russia
supplying Iran with sophisticated nuclear technology.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, completing a visit to Tehran on Monday, said Iran should "unconditionally and quickly" sign the additional protocol to the NPT that would allow snap inspections.
In his talks with Straw, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami insisted his country had no intention of developing nuclear weapons and that the IAEA had Iran's "full cooperation," according to IRNA.
On Monday, Iran's nuclear chief said in Moscow that his country's cooperation with Russia on atomic energy was in compliance with international laws.
Moscow, on the one hand, has insisted that international fears that the Bushehr project could lead to Iran's access to nuclear weapons are unfounded. It has, on the other hand, urged Tehran to sign additional non-proliferation agreements with the IAEA to assure the world it has no intention of developing such weapons.
Meeting with Iran's Aghazadeh on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said signing the agreement would "be yet another confirmation of the peaceful character of the Iranian nuclear program and the close cooperation of Iran with the agency," IRNA quoted from a statement released by the Russian foreign ministry.
Aghazadeh, however, asserted his country was ready to sign the additional protocol "but only under certain conditions." He failed to clarify what conditions could satisfy his criteria.
In its previous stance on the issue, Iran had declared it would sign the protocol if sanctions against it were lifted and nuclear technology for peaceful purposes was put at its disposal.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, said recently that his country would welcome resumption of talks with the IAEA.
"We have no problem in continuing our talks with the IAEA and Europe, and we are ready to consider the concerns of the European states in this connection," he said. "But this can never be a 'one-way' traffic as both sides must reciprocally remove their individual concerns."
Quoting the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy, IRNA reported that a date for the delivery of nuclear fuel from Russia to Iran will be fixed during Aghazadeh's four-day visit to Moscow, which ends on Thursday.
Yet a issue of more concern is the return of spent nuclear fuel from Iran to Russia.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Yakovenko, said that a protocol would be signed soon, committing Iran to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia. He also stressed that his country's cooperation on the construction of the Bushehr plant would continue.
"I do not see causes that could hamper this cooperation," Yakovenko said, adding that "this construction is carried out in strict compliance with the NPT."
