US sees manipulation in Iran deal with IAEA

Vienna, Aug 23: A nuclear cooperation pact Iran struck with the International Atomic Energy Agency has ''real limitations'' and Tehran should stop trying to manipulate the IAEA to dodge harsher UN sanctions, a senior US envoy said.

Washington was not impressed by Iran's transparency promise -- hailed as a ''milestone'' by the IAEA yesterday -- to allay suspicions it is secretly seeking atomic bombs, and would pursue talks with five other big powers on more UN sanctions against Tehran, the US ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog said.

The IAEA declined to comment on Gregory Schulte's criticism.

A diplomat close to the Vienna-based agency said his remarks ''show a deliberate campaign to derail this process.'' Schulte said Washington, Iran's arch-adversary, welcomed any progress in resolving questions about its nuclear activities.

''But we understand there are real limitations with the plan, including Iran's continued refusal to implement the IAEA's Additional Protocol,'' he told reporters by conference call.

He was citing a measure allowing inspectors to conduct spot checks at sites not declared to be nuclear but regarded as important to resolving four-year-old IAEA investigations into the nature and scope of Iran's atomic programme.

The deal is meant to answer IAEA questions about indications of illicit military involvement in Iran's declared drive for peaceful nuclear energy and to improve access for UN inspectors to its underground uranium enrichment plant.

The IAEA's top negotiator said the plan had a timetable and steps to carry it out would start shortly. Neither side disclosed what precisely Iran would do and by when. Details should emerge in a report to the IAEA board by early next month.

Western diplomats believe Iran is making a display of cooperation to split key world powers over the need for stiffer sanctions -- Russia and China are reluctant -- and will drag out steps to buy time so it can master enrichment capability.

Schulte said Iran's suggestion it would not implement the transparency plan unless the UN Security Council shelved steps to intensify the mild sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic over its refusal to stop enrichment was unacceptable.

''If Iran's leaders truly want the world's trust, they would stop trying to manipulate the IAEA, start to cooperate fully and unconditionally and suspend activities of (world) concern.

''Iran is clearly trying to take attention from its continued development of bomb-making capability. I don't think the Security Council will be distracted (by this deal),'' he said.

US-IAEA Tensions

The diplomat close to the IAEA told Reuters that Schulte's remarks were ''very unhelpful ... Such immediate downplaying of this development is disingenuous.'' A more senior diplomat close to the agency said: ''Why can't they accept progress was made? Concrete steps were agreed with dates (attached),'' he said, declining to elaborate.

Tehran said it was ''serious'' about implementing the plan.

But a Western diplomat given a rough readout of the deal said steps to settle some key questions about Iranian behaviour apparently were not agreed and likely would require more talks running ''later into the fall and on into winter.'' Washington has been losing patience with the failure of diplomacy and negotiations so far to curb Iranian nuclear work and has not ruled out military action as a last resort.

An earlier transparency timetable, in 2004, came to nothing.

Western powers suspect Iran's declared goal to refine uranium for electricity so it can export more of its oil is really a cover for perfecting the means to make nuclear bombs.

France said Iran could not restore confidence and head off more sanctions just by a pledge to open its books to IAEA sleuths, rather it would have to suspend enrichment above all else.

Gary Samore at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York said Iran retained an edge in its standoff with the West.

''The US is bogged down in Iraq, other big powers are loath to impose significant economic penalties on Iran. But Iran will have to do enough so this process doesn't look like a charade, and make it hard for Russia to argue it should be given time.''

Reuters>