Iran drops N-exemption demand

Iran has dropped its demand that it be permitted to run equipment that can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapon...

Iran has dropped its demand that it be permitted to run equipment that can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons, a Western diplomat close to talks between the EU and Iran said on Friday.

‘‘They (Iran) have agreed to drop the demand and (the EU) are awaiting confirmation that a letter has been given to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei confirming this,’’ the diplomat told Reuters. A second Western diplomat confirmed it.

The Iranian delegation to this week’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors meeting was not immediately available for comment.

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One diplomat said this paved the way for an agreement on the text of an IAEA resolution that calls on Iran to continue with the suspension of its enrichment programme.

Last week, Iran promised France, Britain and Germany it would halt all activities related to its uranium enrichment programme, which creates atomic fuel for power plants or weapons, in a bid to neutralise the double threat of a UN Security Council report and economic sanctions.

	UN rebukes S Korea for undeclared atomic work

			• VIENNA: The UN nuclear watchdog rebuked South Korea on Friday for undeclared experiments with uranium enrichment and plutonium separation, activities that could be applied to atomic bomb-making. But it stopped short of referring the issue to the United Nations Security Council, a step that South Korea had lobbied hard to avoid. —Reuters

Earlier on Friday, Tehran’s chief delegate to the IAEA said the Islamic Republic was fully committed to a suspension of enrichment and related activities.

Hossein Mousavian told Reuters: ‘‘They (EU) are concerned it would be used for enrichment. Definitely we are not going to use it for enrichment.’’

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Asked what broke the 3-day deadlock over Iran’s request, which had threatened to torpedo the entire EU-Iran agreement, one diplomat said: ‘‘It was (the EU’s) hard stance. The Iranians just gave up.’’

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