Iran this week glossed over embarrassing revelations that it had lied to United Nations inspectors about its nuclear programme.
The state media and government officials quoted the UN nuclear watchdog as saying that Tehran had recently displayed a more cooperative attitude.
”The failures attributed to Iran are insignificant and are at the level of gram and microgram of nuclear materials,” Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on state TV.
Iran’s theocratic leadership long resisted revealing details of its nuclear activities and this week’s findings made clear why.
But, faced with mounting international pressure, the clerical establishment last month chose to reveal its nuclear secrets to avoid sanctions from the UN Security Council.
”They saw that the United States had managed to get more and more European support on the issue,” said an Iranian analyst, who asked not to be named.
”Even the Russians were sending signals they would support the US position. They saw a united front and they had to take action.”
In an attempt to resolve the crisis over its nuclear project, Iran struck a bargain with Britain, France and Germany: agreeing to intrusive UN inspections and a suspension of its uranium enrichment programme in return for future access to Western civilian nuclear technology and assistance.
Diplomats in Tehran say the deal has defused tension and should allow Iran to escape condemnation at the next meeting of the IAEA’s governing board on November 20.
Some hardline ideologues are angry about Tehran’s concessions, but have toned down criticism after the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended the compromise.
The hardline daily Jomhouri Eslami, which previously criticised the decision to allow unfettered inspections, wrote at the weekend that it had faith that the supreme leader would safeguard Iran’s interests.
The reformists, led by President Mohammad Khatami, feel vindicated by the leadership’s move, but have complained that Iran could have resolved the issue earlier at less cost.
”Atomic weapons are not important to our defence doctrine,” the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Hassan Rohani, said this week.
Dr Rohani was in Moscow to discuss further Russian assistance for the construction of nuclear power plants in Iran. Russian engineers are helping Iran to build a nuclear plant, but Moscow had delayed the delivery of nuclear fuel after lobbying by the US. — Â