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CNN Live Today
Iran's Nuclear Program
Aired October 21, 2003 - 11:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Iran today agreed to tougher oversight of its nuclear facilities and to the suspension of its uranium enrichment program.
Our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour joins us from London with more on what that means and why it's happening now.
Christiane, hello.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.
Well, Iran had been under great international pressure, particularly pressure from the United States, over its nuclear program, and potential irregularities.
Iran, as you know, the U.S. suspects is trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies it. But the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, has told Iran that it has to do certain things in order to allay those fears. Those things were to sign on to a tough new protocol called an additional protocol to the Nonproliferation Treaty, which essentially means that Iran has to allow any inspectors to go to any of its nuclear sites at any time without giving prior notice. This Iran agreed to today in Tehran. Also, it has to give full disclosure about all of its nuclear activities. It says it's agreed to do that. And indeed, it has to also suspend, at least temporarily, the enrichment of uranium, because enriched uranium, specifically highly enriched uranium, can be used in nuclear weapons programs.
So Iran had an October 31st deadline to comply with all of this, or face taking this matter -- having this matter taken to the U.N. Security Council, where there could have been U.N. sanctions imposed upon it. It appears Iran has headed that move off now by doing what it's done in Tehran. It did it in meetings with three European foreign ministers who made a special one-day trip to Iran to press the urgency of this matter.
This is what the German foreign minister said:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSCHKA FISCHER, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Signing a ratified edition of the protocol and the immediate implementation, the full cooperation with the agency and the suspension of enrichment and reprocessing activities is very important. And based on this, I think we can move forward in serious and honest dialogue to improve the situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: Now at issue is the activities in Iran's nuclear programs. It does have a nuclear energy program, which it has declared, and which is suspected. But as I said, the United States suspects that Iran has been trying to build nuclear weapons. It wants Iran to abandon all nuclear activities, because of that suspicion.
Now, Europe differs with the United States on that particular issue, in that it says Iran has a right, like all other countries, under international treaties to develop civilian nuclear programs. But Europe is also, just like the United States, committed to making sure there is no proliferation of nuclear weapons, and that's why these foreign ministers went to Tehran today.
They held out an additional carrot to Iran, saying that if Iran went further than just suspending its enrichment programs and abandoned creating enriched fuel for any kind of nuclear program, then Europe would try to guarantee a permanent supply of fuel from other countries, and that it would grant Iran, or it would allow Iran to have access to modern technology, including in the nuclear field, something that Iran has wanted. It's basically been saying, OK, you want us to give up our program? Then supply us with the fuel, supply us with the expertise, supply us with the technology. So that still has to be decided whether or not Iran goes so far as to abandon it. But the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog body, is saying that what happened in Tehran today is an encouraging sign.
KAGAN: All right. And we will be tracking it. Christiane, thank you for that. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 21, 2003 - 11:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Iran today agreed to tougher oversight of its nuclear facilities and to the suspension of its uranium enrichment program.
Our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour joins us from London with more on what that means and why it's happening now.
Christiane, hello.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.
Well, Iran had been under great international pressure, particularly pressure from the United States, over its nuclear program, and potential irregularities.
Iran, as you know, the U.S. suspects is trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies it. But the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, has told Iran that it has to do certain things in order to allay those fears. Those things were to sign on to a tough new protocol called an additional protocol to the Nonproliferation Treaty, which essentially means that Iran has to allow any inspectors to go to any of its nuclear sites at any time without giving prior notice. This Iran agreed to today in Tehran. Also, it has to give full disclosure about all of its nuclear activities. It says it's agreed to do that. And indeed, it has to also suspend, at least temporarily, the enrichment of uranium, because enriched uranium, specifically highly enriched uranium, can be used in nuclear weapons programs.
So Iran had an October 31st deadline to comply with all of this, or face taking this matter -- having this matter taken to the U.N. Security Council, where there could have been U.N. sanctions imposed upon it. It appears Iran has headed that move off now by doing what it's done in Tehran. It did it in meetings with three European foreign ministers who made a special one-day trip to Iran to press the urgency of this matter.
This is what the German foreign minister said:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSCHKA FISCHER, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Signing a ratified edition of the protocol and the immediate implementation, the full cooperation with the agency and the suspension of enrichment and reprocessing activities is very important. And based on this, I think we can move forward in serious and honest dialogue to improve the situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: Now at issue is the activities in Iran's nuclear programs. It does have a nuclear energy program, which it has declared, and which is suspected. But as I said, the United States suspects that Iran has been trying to build nuclear weapons. It wants Iran to abandon all nuclear activities, because of that suspicion.
Now, Europe differs with the United States on that particular issue, in that it says Iran has a right, like all other countries, under international treaties to develop civilian nuclear programs. But Europe is also, just like the United States, committed to making sure there is no proliferation of nuclear weapons, and that's why these foreign ministers went to Tehran today.
They held out an additional carrot to Iran, saying that if Iran went further than just suspending its enrichment programs and abandoned creating enriched fuel for any kind of nuclear program, then Europe would try to guarantee a permanent supply of fuel from other countries, and that it would grant Iran, or it would allow Iran to have access to modern technology, including in the nuclear field, something that Iran has wanted. It's basically been saying, OK, you want us to give up our program? Then supply us with the fuel, supply us with the expertise, supply us with the technology. So that still has to be decided whether or not Iran goes so far as to abandon it. But the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog body, is saying that what happened in Tehran today is an encouraging sign.
KAGAN: All right. And we will be tracking it. Christiane, thank you for that. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
