11 June 2007
Iran Moving Forward To Master Uranium Enrichment Capability
U.S. envoy says there is still time for diplomacy, but not complacency
Washington – A U.S. government official who is highly knowledgeable about Iranian nuclear issues says Iran is moving ahead to try and master the uranium enrichment process, a capability that could enable it to have a nuclear weapon sometime between 2010 and 2015.
Ambassador Gregory Schulte, who represents the United States in Vienna, Austria, at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says Iran’s efforts to expand its enrichment capability would be useful in building a nuclear bomb, but are not needed for civil nuclear energy purposes.
He told USINFO June 11 that although the Iranians are moving ahead “at a very determined rate” in defiance of international requirements, there is still time before they will have the chance to produce nuclear weapons. "We want to use that time to achieve a diplomatic solution,” Schulte said.
Schulte, who also serves as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations Mission in Vienna, said Iran could acquire a nuclear weapon within the next decade, at the earliest, leaving a number of years yet to secure a diplomatic settlement. “It gives us time for diplomacy, but not time for complacency,” he said as members of the IAEA Board of Governors gathered in mid-June to consider the Iranian situation.
Besides Iran’s enrichment efforts, Schulte also drew attention to other actions that he said reflect Iran's decreasing willingness to cooperate with the IAEA. The Iranians already have told the IAEA that they will not share early information on any new nuclear facilities, he said, and they have denied IAEA inspectors access to a heavy-water reactor facility under construction in Arak.
All of this is disturbing, Schulte said, not only because it violates United Nations Security Council resolutions, but because it raises “further troubling questions about the intentions of Iran’s leaders and the nature of their activities.” (See related article.)
The Iranians have the right to pursue peaceful uses of nuclear energy under the terms of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that they signed, the ambassador said, “[but] the problem is that right comes with certain obligations” that they have not met.
Iran has violated its safeguards activities and continues to restrict its cooperation with the IAEA, Schulte said. “They were obliged in signing the NPT to put their activities under safeguards and to be transparent about those activities and, in fact, Iran hasn’t.”
The United States is an enthusiastic supporter of the peaceful use of nuclear technology and the largest contributor to various technical cooperation programs with developing countries at the IAEA, he said. The problem arises from Iran trying to use what it describes as a peaceful program, Schulte said, while it seems to pursue, instead, “a nuclear weapons capability.”
The international community has suspicions about Iran’s true intent, Schulte said: “If Iran wants to cooperate with the IAEA, why don’t they? If Iran wants to be, and says it’s transparent, why don’t they cooperate fully?”
The Iranian government finds it easier to discuss nuclear rights than human rights and the state of Iran’s economy, he said, where inflation and unemployment are in the double digits. Schulte suggested that the Iranian government’s focus on the nuclear issue is an effort to distract the Iranian people. But the Iranian people are smarter than that and they see what is happening, he said.
The Iranian people see their nation becoming increasingly isolated and the economy faring no better, the ambassador continued. “I would hope that the leadership in Tehran would think of the interests of the people of Iran,” he added, “and look for ways to cooperate with the international community rather than continuing to confront it.”
Asked about recent comments made by Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, in which he professes optimism that the impasse soon may be broken, Schulte said there have been many words, promises and pledges from Iranian leaders. “What we would like to see is clear action,” he said.
When asked about any deadlines, the ambassador said the United States, China, Russia and other countries would like to hear the Iranian say that they are going to suspend activities of concern and cooperate with the IAEA “the sooner the better.”
Such an Iranian statement would release a package of major incentives that would include giving Iran access to state of the art technology for light-water reactors and access to a uranium enrichment facility in Russia, Schulte said. “All Iran needs to do to start serious negotiations on this package is to meet the requirements of the Security Council to suspend its uranium enrich activities,” he added.
For more information about U.S. policy, see Limiting Nuclear Weapons.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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