Posted by NEWS on 18/6/2005, 22:03:41 VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. atomic watchdog agency approved a deal Thursday that keeps nuclear inspectors out of Saudi Arabia despite an international push to scrap such arrangements because they can be abused by proliferators. International Atomic Energy Agency board members also focused on a report revealing discrepancies about Iran's plutonium experiments and other suspect activities. The United States warned it would never let Iran develop nuclear arms. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is for generating electricity. The IAEA approved the deal with Saudi Arabia despite serious misgivings about such arrangements in this era of heightened proliferation fears. IAEA officials say there is no reason to doubt the Saudis when they say they have no plans to develop nuclear arms and no facilities or nuclear stocks that warrant inspection. The Saudis qualified for a ``small quantities protocol'' - an agreement that already applies to 75 other nations, including Vatican City and Trinidad and Tobago, and that puts the onus solely on the nation to report its status to the IAEA. The protocol frees countries from reporting the possession of up to 10 tons of natural uranium - enough to make a bomb - or up to 20 tons of depleted uranium, depending on the degree of enrichment, and 2.2 pounds of plutonium. The timing of the Saudi deal comes amid persistent tensions in the Middle East, concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions and increased fears that countries or terrorists are looking to acquire nuclear arms. It also coincides with an IAEA push to tighten or rescind the protocol because of loopholes that encourage potential proliferators, as suggested in a confidential IAEA document prepared for the 35-nation board and made available to The Associated Press. Past Saudi nuclear ambiguities also are worrisome. In the past two decades, the kingdom has been linked to prewar Iraq's nuclear program and to the Pakistani nuclear black marketeer Abdul Qadeer Khan. It also has expressed interest in Pakistani missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and Saudi officials reportedly discussed pursuing the nuclear option as a deterrent in the volatile Middle East. The Saudis have resisted pressure from the United States, the European Union and Australia to either back away from the protocol or agree to inspections. A confidential EU briefing made available to AP quoted the Saudi deputy foreign minister, Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Kabira, as telling EU officials his country would be ``willing to provide additional information'' to the IAEA ``only if all other parties'' to the protocol did the same. Diplomats inside Thursday's closed meeting said the Saudis repeated those conditions. Also Thursday, Iran cautioned it might soon end its freeze on uranium enrichment - which can produce fissile material for atomic bombs - if talks with key European countries on nuclear and other issues do not produce the results it wants. Iran has been in the sights of the IAEA since 2002, when Tehran's secret, nearly two-decade atomic program was revealed. The latest snapshot of the IAEA's Iran probe - made available in advance to AP and presented Thursday to the agency's board - said Tehran recently owned up to working with small amounts of plutonium, a possible weapons component, for years longer than it originally disclosed. It also said Iran received sensitive technology that can be used in a weapons program earlier than it initially said it did. Taking Iran to task for ``ever more inconsistency ... and concealment,'' chief U.S. delegate Jackie Sanders linked the report's findings to Washington's view that ``Iran has not come clean about its past or present nuclear activities.'' ``We will not accept a nuclear weapons-capable Iran,'' she told the board. Notably, however, her comments lacked past U.S. threats to have Iran referred to the U.N. Security Council for perceived breaches of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. That was apparently linked to Washington's decision to await the results of ongoing nuclear talks between Iran and France, Germany and Britain before considering pushing for sanctions. In contrast, senior U.S. delegation member Christopher Ford warned North Korea - the other main proliferation concern - that unless it abandoned ``its pursuit of nuclear weapons ... we will have to consult with our allies and partners on other options'' - diplomatic jargon for Security Council referral. The IAEA has had no authority in North Korea since its inspectors were kicked out in 2002. Iran has frozen uranium enrichment and related activities while negotiating a deal with the European powers - a formidable task considering the Europeans want a permanent freeze and Tehran says it has the right to enrich. Iran's chief delegate, Mohammad M. Akhondzadeh, told the board that ``time is ... of the essence, and we cannot keep our peaceful facilities idle for much longer.''
Saudi Arabia Exempt From Nuke Inspections
By GEORGE JAHN
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