Iran confirms nuclear agency reshuffle to give way for P5+1 talks
21 April 2014, 23:42 -- President Hassan Rouhani's government confirmed rumors on Monday it had reshuffled the leadership of Iran’s atomic agency to sideline nuclear experts opposed to talks on its atomic program with the West.
Rouhani and his negotiators have been under intense pressure from Islamic hardliners opposed to the talks with the United States and five other powers seeking greater transparency in the program in return for an end to sanctions against Iran.
As the talks move toward a possible deal by late July, the hardliners, many of them hold-outs from the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have stepped up their campaign, accusing Rouhani of capitulating to the West on a question of national pride and revolutionary identity
Among rumors circulating for weeks was the alleged expulsion of several nuclear scientists from Iran's Atomic Energy Organization in connection with the 5+1 talks, Reuters reports.
'Only a limited number of people were concerned and they were neither scientists nor were they fired,' said Behruz Kamalvandi, a liaison between the nuclear agency and national parliament. His comments, made to radical Islamic students in a Tehran University, were carried by the official news agency IRNA.
Khamenei, who wields unmatched power in Iran's Islamic system, has cautiously endorsed the talks, but insisted Tehran keeps rights to uranium enrichment for scientific research.
Earlier on Monday, Kamalvandi said Iran was drafting a comprehensive account of its nuclear activities, but did not clarify if it would be published or deal with the talks underway to resolve the decade-old nuclear dispute.
The project, however, could meet Western demands for greater openness in Iran's atomic operations to allay concerns about its possible military nature.
This timeframe would take the report past the July 20 deadline for the conclusion of the talks between Iran and six world powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia.
Iran says the program is solely for civilian purposes such as electricity generation. After four rounds of talks, Iran and the major powers are due to meet again at expert level in New York on May 5-9 to start writing the final draft of a nuclear deal.
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