NAM Envoys At IAEA Consult On Preparing Pro-Iran Draft

Vienna, Feb 28, IRNA – Three days after IAEA Secretary-General Yokia Amano’s latest report on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, NAM envoys at the UN nuclear agency began consultations here to preparing a pro-Iran communiqué. According to an IRNA reporter at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, the Non-Aligned Movement ambassadors during the Monday session of the agency in Vienna surveyed the latest developments related to Iran’s nuclear program. During the two hour meeting of the NAM behind close doors the Islamic Republic of Iran’s representative at the agency Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh presented a report on two rounds of recent inspections of the agency’s high ranking officials of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran’s ambassador and representative at the agency said at the session that the Islamic Republic of Iran is seriously determined to keep cooperating with the agency, but meanwhile nay kind of compromise over the undeniable rights of the Iranian nation would be impossible. Soltaniyeh said at the session that the Islamic Republic of Iran during the intensive talks in Tehran elaborated with full goodwill and transparency on legal and technical aspects of Iran’s nuclear program. An IAEA high ranking delegation headed by deputy secretary general of the agency Herman Nackaerts visited Iran twice during the past month. ** Iran on Monday required the International Atomic Energy Agency to sign a Modality to resolve outstanding issues prior to access to Iranian sites. Iran's IAEA envoy Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh said that the prerequisite to the IAEA inspectors' access to Iranian sites is signing a Modality Plan to resolve the outstanding issues. Speaking to IRNA after two-hour closed-door briefing session of Non-Aligned Movement at IAEA Headquarters, Soltaniyeh said that the ambassadors at the meeting discussed the latest developments about Iran's nuclear issue, including two rounds of Tehran-IAEA talks. At the NAM meeting, he expressed Iran's preparedness for cooperation with the IAEA, adding that no compromise will be made over Iranian nation's inalienable rights. Soltaniyeh added that he has briefed the NAM Representatives to IAEA about the intensive talks with the agency's officials in Tehran and made it clear that the Islamic Republic of Iran showed goodwill and transparency on the legal and specialized aspects of the issue. As for question of some NAM ambassadors on the IAEA inspectors' access to Parchin, he said that first of all a modality in which duties of both sides are clarified, should be signed with all reservations so that the ground would be prepared for any inspection. The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to continue talks with the IAEA based on its international principles and commitments, including Non-Proliferation Treaty, said Soltaniyeh, adding that based on approvals of the NAM ambassadors, the working group of NAM, comprising deputy ambassadors immediately started work to prepare statement in support for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He noted that once finally approved, the NAM envoys' statement would be read out at the Board of Governors session by Egypt's ambassador. The IAEA Board session will convene next week. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano released his latest Iran report on Iran three days ago. As worries over Iran pushed world oil prices to nine-month highs, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneie, making no mention at all of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, reiterated the assertion this week that 'the Iranian nation has never been seeking an atomic weapon and never will be.' Possessing a nuclear bomb 'constitutes a major sin,' he told a group of atomic scientists, but nuclear energy 'is in Iran's national interest.' 'Pressure, sanctions, threats and assassinations will not bear any fruit and Iran will continue its path of (nuclear) scientific development.' The IAEA said it had gone into the two-day visit, and an inconclusive one last month, in a 'constructive spirit,' but that no agreement had been reached on efforts to elucidate Iran's nuclear activities. Despite requests, 'we could not get access' to a military site in Parchin where suspected nuclear warhead design experiments were conducted, team leader and chief inspector Herman Nackaerts said on returning to Vienna. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said the refusal to allow the Parchin inspection was 'disappointing,' and the UN watchdog said that 'at this point in time' there was no agreement with Iran on holding further talks./end