Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation Ali Akbar Salehi and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano shake hands following their meeting in Tehran yesterday.


AFP/Tehran


Iran yesterday agreed with the UN nuclear watchdog on a “road map for co-operation” to inspect its disputed programme, as the United States questioned Tehran’s self-declared right to uranium enrichment.
Diplomats insist world powers are close to reaching a landmark interim deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief despite failing to do so in Geneva over the weekend.
But US Secretary of State John Kerry, during a visit to Abu Dhabi partly aimed at reassuring Gulf allies fearful of a breakthrough with Tehran, said no nation has an “existing right to enrich” and that Iran had baulked at the Geneva talks.
“The P5+1 was unified on Saturday when we presented our proposal to the Iranians... But Iran couldn’t take it, at that particular moment they weren’t able to accept,” said Kerry, who took part in the high-level talks.
Iran’s President Hassan Rohani, a reputed moderate whose election this year raised hopes of progress in the decade-long talks, has said Tehran will not abandon its nuclear rights, calling uranium enrichment on Iranian soil a “red line”.
The so-called P5+1 group—Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China plus Germany—and Iran will reconvene in Geneva on November 20 to try to iron out differences.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meanwhile reached an accord with Iran on a “road map for co-operation” during a visit to Tehran by the head of the UN watchdog, Yukiya Amano.
Amano hailed the deal as “an important step” but said “much more must be done”, in remarks carried by the Isna news agency.
The agreement requires Iran to provide information within three months on all new research reactors and identify sites designated for the construction of power plants as well as for uranium enrichment.
The accord does not specifically address the IAEA’s long-stalled probe into alleged efforts by Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran has always insisted the programme is entirely peaceful.
Amano said inspection of the Parchin military complex, where Iran is alleged to have conducted research on nuclear weapons, would be addressed in “subsequent steps” under the framework.
Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said yesterday that as a gesture of goodwill, IAEA inspectors would be allowed to visit a heavy water reactor under construction in Arak—seen as a key stumbling block in the Geneva talks—as well as the Gachin uranium mine in the south.
At least a year from completion, the Arak reactor is a major source of concern for Western powers, who fear the plutonium it will produce as a by-product could provide Iran with a second route to an atomic bomb.
Yesterday’s agreement foresees the IAEA having direct access within three months to the Arak plant.