Iranian nuke program: The issue of 20 centrifuges

Iran had sought to have &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2003/06/04/47884.html ' target=_blank>20 centrifuges exempted from its suspension of its nuclear program, arguing in talks at the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog agency that their use would be limited to research and development.

The centrifuges spin gas into enriched &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/14277_DU.html ' target=_blank>uranium.

State-run and a private Iranian news organizations, quoting Iranian officials in Vienna, said that, under the compromise, the 20 centrifuges would not be sealed by the &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2003/06/19/48405.html ' target=_blank>IAEA, but instead would be monitored by cameras, as CNN reported.

It was unclear what France, Britain and Germany, running the talks with Iran on behalf of EU, thought of Iran’s concession. Hossein Mousavian, the head of Iran’s delegation to the IAEA board of governors, told the semi-official Mehr news agency that Iran had reached an accord with EU.

"We have reached an agreement with (IAEA) and also with London, Paris and Berlin," he was quoted as saying. "Iran requested the centrifuges will not be sealed off. But those centrifuges will be under the agency’s surveillance."

A Western diplomat said the decision not to seal the centrifuges but to monitor them with cameras was a "face-saving mechanism" that would enable Tehran to say it had not backed down on the issue of the 20 centrifuges, informs Indian Express.