Iran: Inspections, or else
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Aug 31, 2003, 04:18
Tehran - The European Union gave Iran "friendly advice" Saturday to accept unconditional snap International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear sites, or jeopardise trade relations with the 15-member bloc. "If you don't sign the protocol it will be a bad news for you," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi. "Let me be very clear and very blunt," he added during a joint news conference with Kharazi. "You don't have to expect anything because you signed a protocol which is a part of the Vienna agreement. The only thing you have to expect is that we will continue working as friends. "There will be no reward for doing that. This is not a bargaining thing (it's) just like friends advise each other to do, to continue the relations in a deepening mode, which is just what we want to do," the EU official said. The European Union has joined the wider international community in pressing Iran to sign an additional protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would allow IAEA inspectors to descend on its nuclear sites without warning to ensure that Tehran was not secretly developing atomic weapons. Brussels last month warned that, without credible guarantees over the protocol, it would review its economic ties with the country after an IAEA report on Iran is presented in Vienna on September 8. "We want it to be signed: the sooner the better," said Solana. "It brings trust and confidence to the officials in Vienna and the members of the international community," he added. Iran has come under increasing pressure, notably from the United States, to sign the additional protocol. Concern over the issue resurfaced this week when a UN report said that inspectors had found two different types of highly-enriched nuclear particles at facilities in Iran not needed in civilian atomic programmes.
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