The International Atomic Energy’s Director General, Mohammed El-Baradei, told reporters in Sydney Australia that the international community expects Iran to halt uranium enrichment in order to gain international trust. In answering questions about the outcome of Paris meeting between Iran and the three European countries, Britain, France and Germany, his comments were cautious. He said he is not yet able to confirm the details of the preliminary agreement between the two parties. However, he added, he hopes that Iran would suspend its uranium enrichment as a good will sign and begin to build up international trust towards its nuclear intentions.
Pointing to two years of the IAEA’s work with the Islamic Republic and the Agency’s repeated inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites and laboratories, Dr. El-Baradei told reporters that the IAEA is not yet confident of the true nature of Iran’s nuclear program and has to continue its inspections.
In Tehran, a reporter for the Guardian newspaper published in Britain writes: “The European powers secured a pledge from Iran at the weekend that Tehran would halt its uranium enrichment program within weeks.”
However, the EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana said on Monday that the EU3 are “pretty close” to a deal with Iran that would freeze Tehran’s nuclear fuel enrichment and reprocessing activities.
“Progress has been made and we are waiting now for the final response from Iran… it is very difficult to give a definition of how close we are but my feeling today is that we are pretty close to having an agreement… lets hope for new development in the coming hours, days,” said Javier Solana.
Solana told Reuter news agency that if an agreement was reached there would be no reason to refer Iran to the UN Security council.
