The agreement came after negotiations a week earlier between Tehran and the governments of France, Germany, and Britain. The talks almost collapsed as Tehran reportedly pushed for an exemption on an early step in the uranium conversion process and for promises that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would close its file on Iran. Representatives of the European Union Three, as the three imperialist governments negotiating with Tehran are referred to, rejected these proposals.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the three warned the Iranian government they would back Washington’s call for referring Iran’s nuclear energy program to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Such a step could have been taken at the next IAEA board of governors meeting, scheduled for November 25 in Vienna. Washington would use that as an opening for further punitive measures against Tehran.

Faced with this pressure, Tehran agreed to a temporary suspension of its nuclear fuel production process to buy more time. “Iran is planning to suspend uranium conversion activities beginning November 22,” said Hassan Rohani, chief negotiator of the Iranian government, in a November 14 televised news conference in Tehran. Rohani said his government’s understanding is that the suspension is temporary and would last for months. “The Europeans told us it was not a matter of many years but of several months,” he said.

The Iranian government also said that there is no set timetable in its agreement with the EU Three. It said that it has agreed to maintain the suspension of all uranium conversion indefinitely, as long as negotiations last over a more long-term accord.

The day after the deal was announced, the IAEA issued a preliminary report prior to its upcoming board meeting in Vienna. According to the Guardian, the report says that none of the nuclear material Iran has declared to UN inspectors has been diverted to weapons programs, but that the IAEA cannot rule out the existence of covert activities. The IAEA reportedly endorsed Tehran’s agreement with the EU Three.

The IAEA has been snooping on Iran’s nuclear program for more than two years, based on U.S. charges that Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Tehran has argued that it needs to develop nuclear power to meet the country’s growing energy needs, and has pointed out that uranium enrichment is necessary to produce nuclear fuel. Iran has its own uranium mines, government officials have said. They have argued that it would be more costly and would make Tehran dependent on adversaries to drop its enrichment and import nuclear fuel from abroad.

After initially refusing UN demands, Tehran agreed in October 2003 to allow unannounced UN inspections of its nuclear facilities and to voluntarily cease uranium enrichment. Subsequently, in July of this year, it resumed the uranium conversion process, arguing that the European governments had failed to keep their promise to have Iran’s case before the IAEA dismissed.

With the November 14 agreement, “We’ll begin immediately to send our people and inspectors [to Iran] so we can verify that commitment,” IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told CNN.

The text of the agreement released November 15 states that Iran reaffirms “it does not and will not seek to acquire nuclear weapons” and that it will “extend its suspension to include all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities…. the IAEA will be notified of this suspension and invited to verify and monitor it.” Tehran has announced the suspension will be complete three days before the IAEA board meets.

In return for Iran suspending uranium enrichment, the agreement states that Tehran will begin talks with Paris, Berlin, and London on “nuclear, technological, and economic cooperation and firm commitment on security issues.” Specifically, “The [EU Three] will actively support the opening of Iranian accession negotiations at the WTO [World Trade Organization].”

The agreement concludes that the EU Three and Iran “confirm their continued support for the political process in Iraq aimed at establishing a constitutionally elected government.” It also underlines “their determination to combat terrorism, including the activities of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups such as the Mujaheddin-e Khalq.” The latter is an armed group that seeks to overthrow the Iranian government.

According to the Washington Post, unnamed U.S. diplomats said in response to the new agreement that Washington would “pursue a toughly worded resolution against Iran that included more aggressive IAEA inspections and an automatic referral to the Security Council if Tehran breaks any part of the European deal.”

“We don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon and we’re working toward that end,” said U.S. president George Bush in a November 12 joint news conference with visiting UK prime minister Anthony Blair.  
 
 
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