AMMAN, Jordan — The chief of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said Tuesday that he expects to sign a deal with Iran opening the way for fuller investigation of Tehran’s disputed nuclear program, in a potential sign of hope for world powers’ efforts to curb the Iranian efforts.
Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Vienna after returning from Iran that he expected an agreement to be signed “quite soon,” and that he considered the deal to be “an important development.”
After the talks, “we understood each other’s position better,” said Amano, according to a transcript of the exchange released by the agency.
“There was an important development on the structured-approach document on which we have been working since January,” Amano said. “The decision was made to conclude and sign an agreement.”
It’s the first time since June 2007 that the nuclear agency and Iran have agreed on methods to give inspectors greater access to facilities including a military installation at Parchin.
Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat, has pushed hard on Iran to provide better access to its sites and personnel, and recently has been demanding that the Iranians open access to the facility at Parchin. Nuclearagency officials are concerned that the Iranians might be testing detonating devices suitable for use in nuclear weapons.
Amano’s statement came one day before Iranian officials are to meet in Baghdad with six world powers — China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. — to continue talks aimed at persuading Iran to place curbs on its nuclear program. Some diplomats say they have seen some signs that Iran, under pressure from international economic sanctions, may be open to negotiating at least a preliminary deal.
Yet some countries reacted cautiously to Amano’s comments.
Robert Wood, top official at the U.S. mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that while the United States wants to learn more about the deal, “we remain concerned by the urgent obligation for Iran to take concrete steps to cooperate fully with the verification efforts of the IAEA, based on IAEA verification practices.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said Iran’s followthrough will be critical.
“Obviously, the announcement of the deal is one thing, but the implementation is what we’re going to be looking for — for Iran to truly follow through and provide the access to all of the locations, the documents, and the personnel that the IAEA requires in order to determine whether Iran’s program is exclusively for peaceful purposes,” she told reporters in Washington.
Israeli officials, who have long feared that a nucleararmed Iran would target Israel, were also skeptical.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Iran appears to be trying to create an impression of progress before the Baghdad talks, but he urged the international community to hold firm.
“Israel believes that Iran should be set a clear bar so that there is no window or crack the Iranians can [creep] through to advance their military nuclear program. ... It is forbidden to make concessions to Iran. The requirements of the world powers must be clear and unequivocal.”
Barak repeated Israel’s demand that Iran stop all uranium enrichment, with current stockpiles of enriched uranium removed from Iran, to ensure that the Persian Gulf nation won’t have the capability to produce nuclear weapons.
Information for this article was contributed by Paul Richter and Edmund Sanders of the Tribune Washington Bureau; and by Jonathan Tirone, Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Yeganeh Salehi, Boris Groendahl, Grant Smith, Calev Ben-David and Moming Zhou of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 05/23/2012