U.N. nuclear agency suspends some technical aid projects with Tehran

VIENNA, Austria -- The U.N. atomic monitor on Friday suspended nearly half the technical aid it provides to Iran, a symbolically significant punishment for nuclear defiance that only North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq had faced in the past.

The decision was in line with U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. It must still be approved by the 35 countries on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency. But with the agency empowered by the Security Council to freeze any aid to Iran that could be misused for nuclear weapons, approval was likely.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's report to board members called for the full or partial suspension of 18 projects that it deemed could be misused to create nuclear weapons. The agency had already suspended aid to Iran in five instances last month.

Iran insists it will not give up uranium enrichment, saying it is pursuing the technology only to generate energy. The United States and some of its allies fear the Islamic republic is more interested in enrichment's other application -- creating the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

While the IAEA programs do not involve significant amounts of money, a senior U.N official familiar with Iran's file said the suspensions carry "symbolic significance" because they are part of Security Council sanctions.

Only North Korea, which has defied international pressure to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, and Saddam's Iraq, which was suspected of trying to develop such weapons, had previously faced such suspensions.

Iran gets IAEA technical aid for 15 projects and 40 more involving multiple other countries. In projects involving other nations, only Iran was affected by the suspensions.

The Security Council sanctions called for a review of IAEA's technical aid for Iranian programs meant to bolster the peaceful use of nuclear energy in medicine, agriculture, waste management, management training or power generation.

A list accompanying ElBaradei's report described the projects in vague, technical terms. One suspended program involved strengthening Iran's capacity for providing "safe and reliable nuclear power generation."

In November, the board indefinitely suspended a project that would have helped Iran put safety measures in place for a heavy water reactor that would produce plutonium, another pathway to developing atomic weapons. Most of the aid frozen Friday, however, was for programs with less obvious potential weapons applications.

One diplomat in Vienna had said the United States and some of its allies wanted the cancellation, restriction or close monitoring of half the projects involving Iran.

The officials all demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany all want Iran to stop its enrichment program. But their approaches have differed over the past year, often straining the joint effort.

Russia and China, which both share economic and strategic interests with Iran, have been reluctant to impose harsh sanctions. After months of disputes, the Security Council imposed sanctions in December that fell short of the harsher measures sought by the United States.

In March, the IAEA board will also hear a report from ElBaradei expected to confirm that Iran has expanded its enrichment efforts -- a development that would empower the Security Council to impose stricter sanctions.

Diplomats earlier this week revealed that technicians had assembled hundreds of centrifuges in series in an underground facility near the central Iranian city of Natanz, in another step toward Tehran's stated goal of running 54,000 centrifuges to churn out enriched uranium.

Friday's report came amid confusion over whether Iran's chief nuclear negotiator would meet with senior European officials on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich, Germany.

Organizers of the Munich conference initially said Ali Larijani canceled because of an unspecified illness but later said he had promised to show up after all. IAEA officials said earlier Larijani pulled out of a Vienna meeting Friday with ElBaradei for "technical reasons."

There was no comment from the Iranian government.

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