VIENNA: The head of the UN atomic agency called Thursday for diplomatic "urgency" in the Iranian nuclear standoff, even as Tehran signalled its continued defiance of UN Security Council demands to suspend key activities.
"All countries, and the IAEA, are willing to find a diplomatic solution. If there is political will we can reach agreement," said International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano.
"There is an opportunity to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue diplomatically. Now is the time for all of us to work with a sense of urgency and seize the opportunity for a diplomatic solution," he said.
With Iran feeling the pinch from sanctions and US President Barack Obama freed from the constraints of a lengthy re-election campaign, conditions appear favourable to make progress in the long-running crisis.
The P5+1 powers -- the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- held a meeting in Brussels last week and said afterwards they want talks with Iran "as soon as possible." This may happen as early as December.
But it is far from clear whether the P5+1 will want to sweeten an offer, made in talks in May and June, that for Tehran stopped short of offering sufficient sanctions relief.
Signals coming out of Iran meanwhile indicate that Tehran is not any readier to abandon its most sensitive nuclear activities, most notably uranium enrichment.
Iran's nuclear chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, who alleged in September that the IAEA had been infiltrated by saboteurs and "terrorists", said Wednesday Iran would continue "with force" to expand its activities.
This was in spite of four rounds of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, which in combination with additional Western restrictions began to cause real problems for the Iranian economy this year.
Abbasi Davani also said Iran would "soon test" its new heavy water nuclear reactor at Arak, which Western nations fear could produce weapons-grade plutonium.
Parallel diplomatic efforts between the IAEA and Iran, focused on what the agency calls "overall, credible" evidence of past weapons research work, are meanwhile set to resume on December 13 in Tehran.
Amano said Thursday that after several rounds of fruitless talks this year, including his visit to Tehran in May, he did not want another instance of "going around in circles."
His comments came as the IAEA's board of governors met in Vienna for a session dominated, as usual, by Iran's nuclear programme.
The IAEA's latest report on November 16 said Iran was ready to double production at its Fordo facility, a key site dug into a mountain, enriching uranium to purities of 20 percent, close to the level needed for bomb.
The IAEA also said that Fordo's final machinery had been installed but was not yet ready to be put into operation. Once it is, Iran will be able to triple its current monthly output of 20-percent enriched uranium to some 45 kilos (100 pounds).
Israel's "red line" for military action is thought to be when Iran has produced around 250 kilos. That would be enough, if further enriched -- although such a move would be quickly detected by the IAEA -- for one nuclear weapon.
Supporting however Iran's argument that its programme is for peaceful means is the IAEA's finding that of the around 230 kilos of enriched uranium produced so far, 95 kilos have been converted for use as fuel for a reactor producing nuclear medicines.
The rate of conversion has however slowed dramatically, indicating possible technical problems, and once Fordo is fully up and running, Iran will be producing far more material than its civilian facilities need, experts say.
-AFP/ac
IAEA chief calls for "urgent" Iran diplomacy
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IAEA chief calls for "urgent" Iran diplomacy
