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Iran Dangles Deal Belatedly

Iran says it is willing to resume allowing snap U.N. atomic inspections if its case were to be dropped by the U.N. Security Council, and passed back to the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran`s Atomic Energy Organization, says Iran will not yield to U.N. demands that it abandon uranium enrichment, and criticized a report by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

ElBaradei says U.N. checks in Iran had been hampered and Tehran had rebuffed requests to stop making nuclear fuel. Saeedi insists Iran will be able to answer ElBaradei`s concerns about the access granted to U.N. inspectors if Tehran`s nuclear dossier were dropped by the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.

The Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)allows short-notice inspections of nuclear facilities. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, threatened recently to pull out of the NPT if Iran`s dossier was sent to the United Nations Security Council, or if sanctions were levied by the Security Council. The IAEA last week found Iran to be at fault in the ongoing dispute between the Islamic Republic and the rest of the world.