Iran agrees to inspectors, new talks

GENEVA, Switzerland, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Iran will open its new nuclear enrichment plant for U.N. inspectors following the first direct negotiations between the United States and Iran in three decades.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana Thursday after the negotiations in Switzerland told the press that Tehran had agreed to open its new facility to inspectors and another meeting this month to resolve the conflict surrounding its nuclear program.

"Iran has told us that it is plans to co-operate fully and immediately with the International Atomic Energy Agency on the new enrichment facility near Qom, and will invite experts from the agency to visit soon, we expect in the next couple of weeks," he was quoted by the BBC as saying.

Washington had sent to the unusual negotiation location -- an 18th century villa in the countryside near Geneva -- Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, a seasoned diplomat; he spoke to Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili -- the first high-level one-on-one talks between Washington and Tehran since the United States severed diplomatic ties following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany were also present at the negotiation table.

Solana said the West offered Iran to take back economic sanctions in exchange for a freeze in uranium enrichment activity; it's not clear how Tehran responded to that offer.

The meeting nevertheless leaves room for optimism after tensions mounted earlier this week when Iran tested its long-range missiles.

U.S. President Barack Obama has in the past months tried to engage with Iran; Obama reaffirmed a package of economic and political incentives presented to Iran in 2008 that includes extensive security commitments.

Washington Wednesday -- in what observers say was a goodwill gesture -- let Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki into the country.

Until the Geneva meeting, that strategy hadn't paid off. Tehran recently revealed a secret enrichment facility located in an underground bunker -- the second uranium enrichment facility in the country.

This angered international observers and provoked them to threaten Iran with additional sanctions.

Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA, said Iran violated his agency's rules.

"Iran was supposed to inform us on the day it was decided to construct the facility. They have not done that," he said in an interview with CNN India Wednesday.

The West believes Iran is using an atomic energy program as a coverup to secretly develop nuclear weapons; Tehran has denied those allegations repeatedly, but the West remains suspicious because of Iran's repeated defiance of the IAEA's regulations.