Iran Accedes to Demands of Nuclear Agency

Bowing to international pressure, Iran said Tuesday that it would suspend uranium enrichment and sign an agreement permitting international inspectors to make wide-ranging checks of its nuclear program.

A senior Iranian official announced the decision in Tehran after four hours of meetings with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany. He said Iran would sign an additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty permitting broad inspections and suspend its controversial program to enrich uranium.

Iran faces an Oct. 31 deadline set by the International Atomic Energy Agency to sign the agreement, suspend the uranium-enrichment program and provide detailed information about its nuclear program. The deadline was imposed amid concerns by the United States and other countries that Iran was trying to develop an atomic bomb.

The agency demanded that Iran meet the deadline or face the prospect of the matter being referred to the United Nations Security Council, which could impose sanctions.

Hassan Rowhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told reporters in Tehran that the government had decided to sign the protocol so that it could continue its civilian nuclear activities, which it said were for generating electricity. In exchange, Iran would be allowed to buy new nuclear technology kept out of its reach by 20 years of sanctions.

“Another agreement is that Iran would voluntarily suspend its uranium-enrichment program for a while to show its goodwill and build confidence with the European and other countries,” Rowhani said. “This is a voluntary decision, and we are doing it to create a new atmosphere of trust and to develop relations with Europe and industrialized countries.”

The White House praised Iran’s decision to freeze nuclear enrichment and accept more intrusive inspections. If Iran follows through with its promises, it “would be a positive step in the right direction,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. “Full compliance by Iran will now be essential.”

Although Iran’s pledges were greeted with general optimism, uncertainties remained. There was no indication when Iran would suspend its uranium enrichment, and Rowhani did not say how long the suspension would last.

“It could last for one day or one year -- it depends on us,” he told reporters. “As long as Iran thinks that this suspension is beneficial for us, it will continue.”

Rowhani also did not say when Iran would sign the protocol or give the IAEA information about its nuclear activities.

The Iranian announcement was greeted as an encouraging development by the head of the IAEA in Vienna.

“This would be a very positive movement,” Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency’s director-general, said in an interview. “It is not the end, by any means, because we still have a lot of work to do. When we get Iran’s complete declaration, we obviously need to do a lot of verification activities.”

ElBaradei said Iranian officials pledged to deliver disclosure materials by the end of the week. The material is supposed to cover suppliers who sold nuclear technology to Iran on the black market, including equipment used to enrich uranium.

“I hope that Iran will fulfill what they have promised,” ElBaradei said. “The next week is really crucial in seeing how this situation will unfold.”

Iran had resisted pressure to sign the protocol, which permits IAEA inspectors to visit any location in a nuclear facility on two hours’ notice and to inspect suspicious installations elsewhere on 24 hours’ notice. But the mood in Tehran began to shift after the IAEA imposed the tough deadline last month.

The resolution setting the deadline reflected growing international concern about Iran’s nuclear program after a series of disclosures in recent months that cast doubt on Tehran’s claims that it is solely a peaceful program.

Among the most alarming disclosures was the discovery of trace amounts of weapons-grade uranium at a massive underground enrichment plant being built near the central city of Natanz and at a formerly secret complex north of Tehran.

Enriched uranium can be used in civilian reactors or, when purified to higher levels, as material for weapons. Iran said the weapons-grade traces were the result of contaminated machinery purchased abroad, an explanation that IAEA inspectors and other experts said they doubted.

The 35 countries that form the IAEA’s governing board heard ElBaradei describe the findings and other suspicious Iranian nuclear activity last month. Iran walked out of the meeting, and the board unanimously approved the resolution setting the Oct. 31 deadline.

ElBaradei went to Tehran last week to impress on Iranian officials the seriousness of the deadline. About the same time, the Iranians invited the high-level European delegation to discuss the matter.

Diplomats in Vienna familiar with the negotiations said senior officials from Britain, France and Germany visited Tehran at the end of last week to lay the groundwork for Tuesday’s agreement.

“They weren’t going to let the ministers go if there wasn’t going to be an agreement,” said one Western diplomat who was briefed on the talks.

Iran’s decision appeared to be a victory for the European strategy of continuing to negotiate.

“This is a very important day,” Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, said at a news conference in Tehran. “We were facing a major issue. Proliferation is a major challenge to the world, and today we found a solution to the pending issue.”

But Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, was more cautious. “It’s been an important day’s work, but you can only judge its significance in time and through implementation.”

The agreement was spelled out in a joint statement issued by Iran, Britain, France and Germany. The statement said that Iran would cooperate fully with the IAEA and that nuclear weapons were not part of Iran’s defensive strategy.

In return, the statement said that Britain, France and Germany believed that the agreement would open the way for Iran to overcome some of the international sanctions. “Once international concerns, including those of the three governments, are fully resolved, Iran could expect easier access to modern technology and supplies in a range of areas,” the statement said.

The treaty protocol requires the approval of the Iranian parliament, a step that some observers say is not assured because of the mixed messages coming from the Tehran government about how far to go in cooperating with the IAEA.

“It’s one thing to sign the protocol and another to ratify it,” the Western diplomat said in an interview. “Signing the agreement could simply be a useful delaying step.”

But Rowhani said Iran already had given IAEA inspectors nearly complete access to its nuclear facilities and other installations, including a military site. The diplomat in Vienna confirmed that inspectors had been granted substantial access to Iranian sites in recent weeks.

The IAEA governing board is scheduled to meet Nov. 20 to consider whether additional action is warranted against Iran. ElBaradei said he expected to provide a fuller report then, though it was unclear whether the verification process would be complete.

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Times wire services were used in compiling this report.