Iran attitude shift reported

TEHRAN, Iran – The visiting head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog set Oct. 25 as the date for his inspectors to check Iran’s newly revealed uranium enrichment site and struck an upbeat note Sunday, saying Tehran’s confrontation with the West is shifting gears to more cooperation and transparency.

Though the United Nations has no “concrete proof” of an ongoing nuclear weapons program, the chief of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said he has “concerns about Iran’s future intentions.”

The inspection of the site and the outcome of more nuclear talks later this month with the United States and its allies will be crucial in determining the direction of the six-year standoff over Iran’s nuclear activities.

“I see that we are at a critical moment. I see that we are shifting gears from confrontation into transparency and cooperation,” ElBaradei said at a news conference in Tehran with Iran’s top nuclear official.

His visit followed a week of intense diplomatic activity surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, set off by the revelation that Tehran had been secretly constructing a new uranium enrichment plant just north of the holy city of Qom. On Thursday, Iran and six world powers put nuclear talks back on track at a landmark session near Geneva that included the highest-level bilateral contact with the U.S. in years.

President Barack Obama’s national security adviser said Sunday that Washington was also pleased with the level of cooperation from Iran.

“The fact that Iran came to the table and seemingly showed some degree of cooperation, I think, is a good thing,” James Jones said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

“But this is not going to be an open-ended process. … We, the world community, want to be satisfied within a short period of time,” Jones added. “So it’s not going to be extended discussions that we’re going to have before we draw our conclusions to what their real intent is. But for now, I think things are moving in the right direction.”

France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, also talked of a “wind of medium optimism.” He said “something happened” at Thursday’s talks in Switzerland and “we no longer want to talk of sanctions.”

ElBaradei was in Iran to set up the U.N. inspection of the enrichment facility near Qom.

The site sparked serious concern, in part because its location next to a military base and partly inside a mountain adds to suspicions that Iran’s nuclear program could have a military dimension. Obama, who accuses Iran of seeking to keep the site hidden for years before notifying the IAEA about it, has said Tehran’s actions “raised grave doubts” about its promise to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes only.

Iran, which insists its nuclear work is only for nonmilitary purposes like energy production and medical research, says the site’s location near a military base is intended to protect it from potential aerial bombing.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said that the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are studying options for more sanctions if Iran does not fully open its nuclear program to international inspections.

“But right now we are in a period of intense negotiations,” said Ambassador Susan Rice, speaking on NBC TV’s “Meet the Press.” “It’s not an infinite period. It’s a very finite period,” she said, while refusing to set a deadline.