Iran holds more talks with UN over nuke row

TEHRAN—Iran and U.N. nuclear experts will hold fresh round of talks in the Islamic state this week aimed at clarifying aspects of the country’s disputed nuclear programme, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
Iran agreed with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on August 21 to explain the scope of its nuclear programme, which the West fears is a cover for building a bomb. Iran says its atomic work is aimed at generating electricity. As part of the agreement, an Iranian team and the IAEA held a two-day meeting in September to answer outstanding questions over centrifuges Iran uses to enrich uranium. “The next round of talks will be held on Tuesday to continue discussions about P1 and P2 centrifuges,” Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference. Centrifuges can enrich uranium to weapons-grade. Iran uses a 1970s vintage of centrifuge, called P-1s, prone to breakdown if spun at high speed for long periods but is researching an advanced P-2 model at sites off limits to IAEA inspectors. The deal with the IAEA allows Iran to settle questions one by one over a timeline the agency says would run to December — even as it adds centrifuges to its Natanz enrichment plant, nearing the 3,000 needed to start producing usable quantities of nuclear fuel.
The U.N. Security Council has slapped two rounds of sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to halt enrichment. Major powers have agreed not to impose further U.N. sanctions until November, to see whether the pact between Iran and the IAEA yields results, and to await a report by EU negotiator Javier Solana on talks with Iran.
However, the Security Council and Germany are negotiating on a third resolution against Tehran, and France and Germany signaled on Friday that Europe could punish Iran for pressing ahead with its nuclear work before further U.N. sanctions. Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday France’s call for EU sanctions against Tehran outside the U.N. framework was illegal, reiterating Iran would go ahead with its nuclear programme.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Friday that Iran will not negotiate over its ‘’nuclear rights’’ but said the government was prepared to answer questions from the UN nuclear watchdog agency. The comments came as French diplomatic officials said Iran is set to run almost 3,000 centrifuges by the end of the month, nearing the threshold for industrial-scale uranium enrichment.
Ahmadinejad said Iran has already achieved proficiency in the whole nuclear fuel cycle, from extracting uranium ore to enriching it, and that Tehran has removed any hurdles in the way of its nuclear progress. ‘’The Iranian nation favors talks but it won’t negotiate over its definite and legal nuclear rights. They (world powers) have to know this,’’ Ahmadinejad said in comments before Friday prayers in Tehran.
In a setback for the United States, Iran won a two-month reprieve from new UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear program last month. The Bush administration and its European allies ceded to Russian and Chinese demands to give Tehran more time to address international concerns. The US and some of its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons but Tehran has denied the charges, saying its nuclear program was geared toward the peaceful generation of electricity.—Agencies