The head of the UN atomic agency on Monday told a 35-nation meeting overshadowed by a standoff over Tehran’s uranium enrichment activities that he had made little progress in his probe of suspicious aspects of Iran’s nuclear programme.At that meeting, the US and Europe are lobbying other nations to join them in urging Iran to accept a six-nation package of rewards in exchange for freezing its uranium enrichment programme.The International Atomic Energy Agency ‘‘has not made much progress in resolving outstanding verification issues,’’ said IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told the board member nations, alluding to suspicions that Tehran’s nuclear activities could be used toward development of a weapons programme.He described the rewards being offered to Tehran as addressing ‘‘the need of the international community to establish confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme.’’Chief US delegate Gregory L Schulte called on Iran to respond positively to the offer to Iran to negotiate—and suspend enrichment, which can be used both to generate power and create the fissile core of nuclear warheads.‘‘The next decision needs to be taken not in Vienna but in Tehran,’’ he said adding US hoped it would be ‘‘a decision to refrain from further enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.’’In Luxembourg, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that he expected an Iranian response this week.While the meeting is dominated by the nuclear standoff, delegates are not expected to start formally discussing the issue before late Wednesday. Two position papers issued before the meeting reflect a concerted Western effort to persuade board members to line up behind the six-nation offer.This also shows Western commitment to secure a long-term Iranian moratorium on enrichment—even though Tehran initially is only asked to suspend such activity during the duration of any negotiations.Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Monday agreed to play an “active role” in resolving the standoff over Iran’s nuclear weapons, Japan’s foreign ministry said.The US is also trying to keep non-aligned states at the UN atomic agency from issuing a statement backing Iran’s claims that it has a right to uranium enrichment, diplomats said today.A non-aligned movement diplomat said the US would like the nam, which has some 16 member states on the iaea board, to repeat a resolution that has called on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, which makes nuclear reactor fuel but also atom bomb material.-GEORGE JAHN
