Meeting in Vienna, the 35-member International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decided to allow time for talks on a Russian proposal which would involve uranium enrichment processes to be carried out in Russia rather than Iran.
Russia, along with China, has strong economic ties with Iran and has previously been reluctant to increase pressure on Tehran in contrast to the agency’s Western members.
In a rare show of consensus, the IAEA appears to be united in its willingness to consider the Russian offer as a way out of the prolonged crisis.
According to a statement obtained by the Reuters news agency, the IAEA agreed “not to allow Iran in the present circumstances to conduct enrichment-related activities on its soil… None of the members of the board wishes Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
But both the United States and Britain have warned that the time for discussion and action will not be unlimited.
“Just as we join with all in this room in seeking a diplomatic solution… (if there is no) verified change in course in Iran, very little more time can pass before the board must make its report to the Security Council,” the head of the US delegation, Gregory Schulte, said.
EU-brokered talks with Iran collapsed in August when Iran resumed uranium conversion, the first step in the process of manufacturing enriched uranium which can be used to fuel reactors or to make the explosive core of atom bombs.
Iran has repeatedly claimed it intends only to develop enriched uranium to generate electric power.
On September 24, the IAEA found Iran was in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and risked eventual referral to the Security Council for possible sanctions.
US concerns that Iran has secretly been developing the means to make nuclear weapons gained strength last week after it was revealed that Iran had admitted to having in its possession a document supplied by black marketeers containing partial instructions on how to build the enriched uranium core of an atomic bomb.
Iranian ambassador Mohammad Akhondzadeh said this was “simple and non-sophisticated information which could be found in open literature and on the internet.”
But one European diplomat reportedly told Reuters that “the internet did not exist at the time when they got these papers.”
It is not that first time that Iran has made shocking revelations over its nuclear programme.
In 2003, Iran confessed it had kept potentially weapons-related technology hidden from UN inspectors for 18 years.
Just last month, the Islamic republic’s president made the disturbing threat that Israel should “be wiped off the map.”
However, time may be running out for Iran to avoid UN sanctions if a mutually agreeable solution to the country’s nuclear aspirations remains out of reach.
“Iran welcomes any proposal that acknowledges its right to have access to peaceful nuclear technology,” the deputy head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Javad Vaeedi, told Reuters.
Hopes are now pinned on the possibility of a joint Russian-Iranian programme as a workable compromise.
Diplomats said envoys from Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Iran have tentatively planned to meet in December to thrash out options.