Iran allows all IAEA cameras to be installed at atomic site (Roundup)

Feb 10, 2007, 21:59 GMT

Tehran - Only 10 days before a deadline set by the United Nations Security Council, Iran on Saturday allowed all monitoring cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) be installed at its atomic site in central Iran.

State news agency IRNA carried a statement by the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization that all surveillance cameras demanded by the IAEA have been installed at the Natanz nuclear facilities, where the controversial uranium-enrichment process is conducted.

According to the Iranian statement, the camera installations would make it possible for the IAEA to thoroughly monitor the Natanz nuclear site.

The monitoring camera installations come after a bill approved by the conservative parliament obliging the government to revise cooperation with the IAEA.

The attendance in Germany of Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani at the ongoing international security conference in Munich is regarded as another effort by Tehran to avoid an international crisis over its nuclear programmes.

Larijani told IRNA in Munich that Iran regarded the Munich conference as 'a very big and auspicious event if signs of seeking sustainable peace could be realized.'

Larijani also reacted coolly to the inaugural speech by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had called on Iran to end uranium enrichment and follow the UN resolution. 'There are no ifs and buts here and no tricks,' she said.

Larijani said: 'Iran pursues a specific path in its nuclear activities, which is fully transparent and under IAEA surveillance. Tehran remains committed to its undertakings under the treaty.'

Larijani is scheduled to deliver a speech Sunday on Middle East security and to meet German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

Larijani hopes to meet directly with Merkel, but it was unclear if she would meet personally with Larijani, a close aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Despite the recent flexibility shown by Tehran, including opening the doors of the uranium conversion plant in Isfahan to the Western press and promises to also arrange a tour to Natanz, observers doubt that Iran would give in to suspension of its enrichment programmes.

Iran's IAEA envoy Ali-Asqar Soltanieh said earlier Saturday that the latest IAEA report will have no impact on Iran's determination to pursue its uranium-0enrichment programme.

Soltanieh told Fars news agency that none of the halted projects had any justifiable basis and termed the report a follow-on to the 'legally unjustifiable' UN resolution 1737 and therefore technically not relevant.

In a report to its 35-nation Board of Governors Friday in Vienna, the IAEA said that 22 out of 55 technical cooperation projects with Iran have been frozen, including 10 halted and 12 restricted.

The IAEA followed the line laid out in December by United Nations Security Council resolution 1737, which asks countries to suspend all cooperation that could potentially enable Iran to acquire nuclear- weapons capabilities.

Soltanieh said that out of the 10 halted projects, only three were directly related to Iran and the remaining seven were regional.

'The UN resolution has caused the IAEA limitations and eventually led to the freezing of projects with Iran,' Soltanieh said.

'The frozen projects had nothing to do with Iran's uranium- enrichment programmes and been previously confirmed by the IAEA as peaceful - they were only frozen because of the legally unjustifiable UN resolution.'

Meanwhile, the deputy director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said Saturday that Iran would continue cooperation with the IAEA despite the decision to freeze technical cooperation projects. Mohammad Saeedi was quoted by news network Khabar as saying that Iran's cooperation with the IAEA would not be affected by Friday's IAEA report.

In line with the UN resolution, Iran is obliged to suspend its uranium enrichment programme by February 21 or face sanctions.

Tehran has so far rejected the UN demand, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is even expected to announce an expansion of enrichment programmes in the Natanz plant in central Iran on Sunday at a ceremony commemorating the 28th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

According to unconfirmed reports, Iran will double the number of its centrifuges, from two cascades of 164 centrifuges each to four cascades and a total of 656 centrifuges.