By allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit and verify its nuclear programme, Iran has indicated readiness to work with the United Nations watchdog. Ali Larijani, Iran’s topmost security official, said last Sunday that the country considered the IAEA as the pivot for talks on nuclear energy and stressed the importance of cooperation with the Vienna-based, United Nations body. But Larijani, who is also chief negotiator at the IAEA, added that Iran also welcomed the contribution of all countries in nuclear research and peaceful nuclear activities.

On the weekend, Tehran announced the expected arrival of a two-man IAEA team and indicated Iranian determination to work with the agency to verify that its national nuclear programme was not military in nature. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last Saturday that Iran’s programme conformed to the IAEA requirements and the NPT better than those of Western countries.

Ahmad Ziadabadi , who was imprisoned during the Khatami presidency and now works as a political analyst said: ‘’Iranian officials will likely go on provoking a collision with the United States and the European troika (Britain, France and Germany) until the dossier ends up in United Nations Security Council (UNSC).’’

Despite moves by the EU3 to refer Iran’s resumption of nuclear fuel research to the UNSC, the mood within the country’s top leadership remains upbeat and the general belief was that it would be possible to ride out international sanctions. “The possibility of Iran’s case being sent to the security council is weak,” Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

A draft referral is expected to be put up at an emergency meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board early February for a final decision on a referral. ‘’We are not worried by the Security Council, but it is the wrong method,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. He refuted suggestions by EU representative for foreign policy and security Javier Solana that Russia had changed its stance on Iran.

Iran has warned that a referral to the UNSC would invite a limiting of the access given to inspectors from the IAEA to its nuclear facilities and also that the country may then begin full-scale uranium enrichment.

Kamal Athari, a journalist said that ‘’challenging America through military and economic leverages is not wrong tactics.

Iran should engage international organisations and empower the Islamic republic through democratisation and justice in Iranian society”. The Iranian establishment seems keen to heed Atahari’s advice, at least on engaging the IAEA and carrying on diplomatic lobbying. The baiting, however, continues. Bragged Ahmadinejad: ‘’They (EU troika) talk tough against Iran’s nuclear stance in front of TV cameras but behind the table, they flatter and beg us to compromise”. Abulhasan G, a media advisor for several multinational companies, said: ‘’They are following a two steps forward one step backward policy. They speak and act tough only up to a point but as soon as things get critical they go back to speaking softly.’’ While Tehran has called for resumed talks with the European troika, its representative at the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, has declared as ‘’irreversible’’ the decision to resume nuclear research. — IPS