Iran's consent to suspend all activities connected with dressed uranium, on the one hand, and the fact that Britain, France and Germany have recognized this step as a voluntary move vested with no legal obligations, on the other hand, are factors to foster an atmosphere of confidence as regards the Iran problem. This is vital for continued cooperation between Teheran and the IAEA whose inspectors are to monitor Iran's performance of its commitments under the earlier-signed additional protocol to the treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT), said the foreign ministry source.
Last September's resolution on Iran, according to previous reports, contained a clause whereby the Board of Governors reserved the right to consider the expedience of adopting further decisions on Iran's nuclear programme within the IAEA framework. In other words, the IAEA, in case of Iran's failure to comply with the resolution's appeals to suspend all the full nuclear cycle formation programmes, reserved the right to authorise the UN Security Council to take upon itself decision-making concerning the nuclear programme. This is certainly fraught with the introduction of sanctions against Iran. It was only due to Russia's (and China's) tough stand at that very session of the Board of Governors that the resolution did not adopt the provision of the so-called "trigger mechanism", which implied an automatic transfer of Iran's nuclear file to the UN Security Council.
In the opinion of the foreign ministry's source, the discussion of Iran's nuclear programme at the session of the IAEA Board of Directors, to open on November 25, is not expected to excite any heated polemics. The IAEA report that has been already circulated among the members of the Board, including Russia, is compiled in quite a positive manner in relation to the Iran issue. A peaceful solution for the issue seems also feasible because of the fact that US President George Bush, when meeting recently with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Washington, welcomed the accords reached between Teheran and the European Three.
The Russian foreign ministry notes that such a favourable outcome of the dialogue between Iran and the European Union is largely due to the constructive position of Moscow that has done a lot to inspire both Iran and the European union to compromise.
