Progress On Iran’s Nuclear Program Talks

The talks with Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are scheduled to start on October 1ST. The US energy Secretary Steven Chu confirmed that the United States would participate in the talks announced at the IAEA annual general conference today. Secretary Chu welcomed the news, and said that the “meeting was an important first step”.

The European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that he had spoken with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and agreed that talks would be held on October 1ST between Iran and representatives of the US, China, Russia, Britain, France & Germany.

An even more significant news, on the first day of the IAEA conference in Vienna, was the nomination of Yukiya Amano of Japan as the new director of the United Nations nuclear watchdog. Yukiya Amano will replace Mohamed ElBaradei on December 1ST. Mohamed AlBaradei’s credibility was getting highly questionable, he had recently raised controversy over a new report relating to the Iran nuclear issue.

Mohamed ElBaradei was criticized by Israel and the US for years, but lately French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner added his voice to the accusations. Kouchner said that ElBaradei was withholding crucial information about whether Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb. The specific accusations were made by Kouchner on September 3 RD. It was the first time France was explicitly critical of the IAEA director.

“Not a single question has been answered about suspicions that Iran is trying to build a warhead, and that crucial evidence is buried in unpublished annexes. Why doesn’t he provide us with the annexes of his report?” said Kouchner.

Israel was calling for ElBaradei to be sacked in 2007, and the Israeli government should welcome the announcement of his replacement. Hopefully the talks, and having a new director at the IAEA will cool off the bellicose tone coming from the Netanyahu administration towards Iran. In recent weeks, the drums of war in the form of a preemptive Israeli strike on Iran have been beating louder in the Israeli media, the meeting on October 1ST could help diffuse a dangerous situation.