US says Iran trying to sidestep sanctions on nuclear materials

What you need to know:

  • According to media reports, since the November deal Western firms have been falling over themselves to try and win business in the oil-rich Islamic republic
  • But the US official said that with the core of sanctions still in place, most notably on Iran’s banks, it “remains extraordinarily difficult” to do business in the Persian Gulf country, and that any new trade may contravene the sanctions

VIENNA

Tehran is still seeking to sidestep sanctions to get materials for its nuclear programme, a senior US official said Friday on a European tour meant to cool renewed corporate enthusiasm about doing business in Iran.

Iran is “undoubtedly still looking for ways to acquire material for their nuclear programme,” the US official, speaking in Austria on a tour also taking in Britain, Germany, Turkey, Italy and other places, said on condition of anonymity.

“We have seen over many years that the Iranians take advantage of the commercial and financial relationships that purport to be for legitimate purposes to surreptitiously acquire materials that they are looking for for their nuclear programme and their ballistic missile programme, to facilitate their support for terrorism,” he said.

As a result he said that any “responsible” firm should think twice before seeking to do business with Iran when the Islamic republic gains minor relief from sanctions from Monday as part of a nuclear deal with world powers.

Under this “first step” accord struck in Geneva in November, Iran will — from Monday — freeze some of its nuclear activities for six months in exchange for a package of sanctions relief worth $6-7 billion, according to Washington.

Over this period, during which time Iran will still miss out on some $30 billion in oil revenues, Tehran and the world powers will seek to strike a long-term accord ending for good the long-running standoff over its nuclear work.

BUSINESS

According to media reports, since the November deal Western firms have been falling over themselves to try and win business in the oil-rich Islamic republic.

But the US official said that with the core of sanctions still in place, most notably on Iran’s banks, it “remains extraordinarily difficult” to do business in the Persian Gulf country, and that any new trade may contravene the sanctions.

“There is some enthusiasm in the business community about the prospect for business in Iran. One of my objectives (of this trip) is to temper that enthusiasm with a dose of reality,” he said.

“The overtures that have been made here and elsewhere to the Iranian business community are I think premature, not good business, and they are not fundamentally helpful in the pathway to maximise the chances ... for a comprehensive resolution.”

Meanwhile, UN nuclear experts are to inspect Iran’s Gachin uranium mine later this month for the first time in almost nine years, its Atomic Energy Organisation said on Friday.

“The inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency will travel to Tehran on January 29 to visit Gachin mine,” AEO spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

DEAL STRUCK

Iran agreed a framework deal with the UN nuclear watchdog in November that includes six steps Tehran must carry out by February 11.

“The agenda for negotiations between Iran and the IAEA which will take place on February 8 on how to implement the second phase is not clear yet,” Kamalvandi said.

As part of the first phase of the deal, UN experts visited the heavy water plant at the unfinished Arak reactor on December 8, when all of the IAEA’s “technical objectives” were met, the Vienna-based agency said.

At least a year from completion, the Arak reactor is a major source of concern for Western powers, who fear the plutonium it will produce as a by-product could provide Iran with an alternative route to an atomic bomb.

The November deal also allows UN experts to visit the Gachin uranium mine in southern Iran — which has been off-limits to IAEA inspections since 2005.

“For Gachin... the IAEA wants to have as accurate a picture as possible of how much uranium feedstock it has,” Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told AFP.

Hibbs said there were some question about “who has managed the operation and to whom they reported”.

In November, Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said the “six-step annex” deal signed with the IAEA was a show of Tehran’s good will.