Turkish PM to visit Iran
IRIB
2003/09/23
08:01:05
Ankara, Sept 23 - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to pay an official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the near future, Iran's Ambassador to Ankara Firouz Dolatabadi revealed on Monday.
He said the visit will take place following the visit by a Turkish political-security delegation to Tehran.
Dolatabadi rejected recent allegations in the Turkish media about the postponement of the visit by the Turkish Premier to Iran.
It is expected that the Turkish Prime Minister's visit will take place in the second half of October.
President Mohammad Khatami is also expected to pay an official visit to Turkey in December-January, he concluded.
http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=188698&n=34September 23, 2003
Iran to Scale Back Cooperation With U.N.
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -
Iran remains willing to negotiate on the U.N. nuclear agency's demand for unfettered access for its inspectors but will scale back its cooperation with the watchdog in the meantime, Iran's representative to the agency said Tuesday.
Ali Akbar Salehi had announced on Monday that Iran would cut back its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in response to the agency's Oct. 31 deadline for Tehran to prove its atomic programs are peaceful. Tehran charged the move was politically motivated.
Diplomats had said the Iranian decision did not bode well for efforts to resolve the nuclear dispute, but Salehi on Tuesday said his comments were being misinterpreted by the diplomats.
"We have decided to fulfill our obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and not beyond that," Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's representative to IAEA, told The Associated Press.
"It doesn't mean that we are rejecting the additional protocol or are not prepared to talk on that," Salehi said. The additional protocol would provide IAEA inspectors with unrestricted access of any site they wished to visit in Iran.
Salehi seems to be saying that Iran's latest position is to confine its co-operation with the IAEA to the letter of existing agreements - under which environment sampling at the Kalay-e-Electric Co. in west Tehran is not mandatory - while at the same time negotiating its acceptance of the additional protocol.
The United States has accused Iran of running a clandestine nuclear weapons program and wants the IAEA to declare Tehran in violation of the treaty. Tehran insists its nuclear programs are designed only to generate electricity.
In Vienna Tuesday, a spokesman for the IAEA, Mark Gwozdecky, said the body had heard "nothing official from the Iranian government."
"We've put everything in place to make it possible for Iran to comply with the board of governors resolution," Gwozdecky said, referring to the deadline. "We hope that Iran will do its part in providing the accelerated cooperation that will be necessary for us to resolve the outstanding questions around the nuclear programs."
In August, Iran allowed inspectors to visit Kalay, a site it deemed non-nuclear, after they were turned away two months before when they came to take environmental samples. Iran allegedly had tested centrifuges, which are used to process uranium, at the site.
Iran has said repeatedly it would agree to unfettered inspections if it is granted access to advanced nuclear technology as provided for under the nonproliferation treaty. Tehran says Washington is keeping Iran from getting that technology.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/sep/23/092304090.html