"Iran agrees to Nuclear Enrichment Freeze" by Reuters 10:15am 8th Nov, 2004   Nov 14, 2004    "Iran Agrees to Full Nuclear Enrichment Freeze", by Parisa Hafezi and Louis Charbonneau.    TEHRAN/VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran pledged on Sunday to suspend its uranium enrichment program to ease concerns that its nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons, but warned that the freeze was only temporary.    Hassan Rohani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said the suspension would remain in place as long as talks with the EU continued on a final resolution of the issue. "One hour ago we submitted a letter to the IAEA," Rohani told reporters after a meeting in Tehran with the ambassadors of Britain, Germany and France, which have been negotiating with Iran for several weeks on behalf of the European Union.    Receipt of the letter by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, makes the scope and starting date of the suspension legally binding. Iran's U.N. ambassador, Pirooz Hosseini, declined to say when the freeze would take effect. "Tomorrow we will learn everything," he told Reuters.    A senior EU diplomat close to the talks said Iran had agreed to all points covered in a preliminary agreement hammered out in Paris a week ago. "We have reached a full agreement regarding all the issues mentioned in the package," he said. Iran, which denies U.S. accusations that it is secretly developing atomic weapons, had held up a final deal by demanding that it be permitted to continue the early stages of uranium conversion. The EU rejected this idea. "The suspension is what the Europeans wanted, a full one," a diplomat close to the IAEA said.    A diplomat close to the IAEA said the arrival of the letter on Sunday meant it would be included in a crucial report, due to be released on Monday, summarizing the IAEA's two-year investigation of Tehran's nuclear program. Once confirmed by IAEA inspectors on the ground, the freeze is likely to protect Iran from being reported to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions when the IAEA board of governors meets on Nov. 25.    Nov 7, 2004    "Iran, EU reach tentative Nuclear Deal", by Paul Hughes.    TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran and the European Union's three big powers have reached a tentative deal that could see Tehran avert U.N. Security Council sanctions over its disputed nuclear program, Iranian and EU officials said on Sunday.    The agreement, hammered out during two days of talks in Paris ending late on Saturday, just awaits the go-ahead from Iran's clerical leadership, EU diplomatic sources told Reuters. Under the deal Iran would freeze all nuclear fuel enrichment and reprocessing activities until it has reached a final agreement with the EU over a package of economic, technological and security incentives in return for abandoning potentially weapons-related nuclear activities, the diplomats said.    "The time frame (of the enrichment suspension) will be given by the pace of reaching overall agreement," an EU diplomat said. A deal with the EU trio of Britain, Germany and France is Iran's best hope of avoiding a showdown with the United States in the U.N. Security Council.    Recently re-elected President Bush has dubbed Iran an "axis of evil" member and vowed to prevent it from acquiring nuclear arms. Israel also refuses to rule out strategic strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. Washington wants Iran's case sent to the Security Council but agreed last month to give the EU trio a final opportunity to negotiate a solution with Iran, which says its nuclear plants will only be used for a civilian atomic energy program.    The EU trio told Iran it must freeze uranium enrichment -- a process used to purify uranium into nuclear reactor fuel or to make bomb-grade material -- before the Nov. 25 board meeting of the U.N.'s atomic watchdog or face the Security Council. "Negotiations were very hard and complicated but we reached a preliminary agreement on an expertise level," said Hossein Mousavian, head of Iran's delegation in Paris. "It is a framework that contains the viewpoints of all sides."    "All four delegations are supposed to go to their capitals and if the capitals agree with the agreement, it will be officially announced in the next few days," he told state television.
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