IRAN announced on Monday that it is about to conclude an agreement in Paris with Britain, France and Germany. Receiving a cautious welcome from other parties involved, it now needs to be officially approved by the four states. The European powers want Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme in return for the opportunity to buy nuclear fuel direct from the EU and a separate trade deal. If approved the agreement would be a major breakthrough after months of threats and negotiations. More importantly it could spare Iran from being referred to the UN Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after a 25 November review of the situation. If Iran is referred, the United States has warned it would seek economic sanctions unless Tehran had given up all uranium enrichment activities. Such a technology can be utilised for both civil and military purposes. Details of the agreement have not been officially released. But while Hossein Mousavian, head of the Iranian delegation in Paris, stated that fundamental principles had been agreed, other diplomats involved contradict this by stating that two key sticking points are hampering the tentative agreement. These include the scope and the timing of the suspension of uranium enrichment activities. Iran is reportedly pushing for a time-specific duration, namely six months, but the European trio have said that the suspension must be maintained until a long-term agreement is reached between Iran and the EU. Mohamed El-Baradie, head of the IAEA, said the deal was very tentative but he hoped it would lead to the suspension of uranium enrichment in Iran. Javier Solana said that "progress has been made and we are now waiting for the final response from Iran ... It's very difficult to give a definition of how close we are but my feeling today is that we are pretty close to having an agreement ... let's hope for developments in the coming days."
