Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the United Nations nuclear agency, said inspectors would visit Iran’s newly disclosed uranium processing plant on Oct. 25, as he called on Tehran to assure the world it wasn’t building a bomb.

ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general, said Iran’s relations with the international community were at a “critical moment” as it was “shifting gear from confrontation to transparency and cooperation.”

Iran’s new plant near the holy city of Qom, which was disclosed in September, is its second built to enrich uranium and isolate isotopes of the metal to generate fuel used in a nuclear power reactor. In higher concentrations enriched uranium can be used to make a bomb, which the U.S. suspects Iran of trying to build.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, retired Marine Corps General Jim Jones, called recent developments with Iran “very significant.”

“For now, I think things are moving in the right direction,” Jones said today in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “The fact that Iran came to the table and seemingly showed some degree of cooperation, I think, is a good thing.”

ElBaradei, whose comments were aired live on the state-run Press TV channel, was speaking during a two-day visit to the Iranian capital, where he met with the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi.

Visit to Tehran

Iran will also hold talks with the U.S., Russia and France in Vienna on Oct. 19 over a project to enrich fuel for a research reactor, ElBaradei said.

Jones said the Oct. 19 meeting is aimed at discussing a method for transferring 1,200 kilos of low-enriched uranium to Russia. Iran agreed last week to consider sending most of its stock of enriched uranium to Russia and France to be converted into fuel for a research reactor for medical purposes.

The UN atomic chief said the agency had “no concrete proof that there is an ongoing weapons program” in Iran. Still, there are “questions” about Iran’s “intentions,” he said.

He called on the country to provide assurances to the international community that its program was peaceful.

Iranian officials have repeatedly denied the nation is developing a nuclear weapon and say enrichment is needed for civilian use, such as the production of electricity. The Persian Gulf state is under economic sanctions for its refusal to limit its nuclear activities as required by the UN Security Council.

Sanctions

“Iran is trying to play nice,” Dr. Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Dubai-based Institute of Near East and Gulf Military Analysis said in a phone interview from Dubai. “Obviously they are playing for time.”

The outcome of the visit by inspectors to the facility near Qom will help to determine if Iran has been successful in the immediate future in staving off the threat of further sanctions, Karasik said.

Saeed Jalili, Iran’s nuclear negotiator, met on Oct. 1 with envoys of the five permanent UN Security Council members -- the U.S., Russia, China, France and Britain -- plus Germany in the first talks on the country’s disputed nuclear program in more than a year.

During the meeting, which took place near Geneva, Iran agreed to allow inspection of the new enrichment facility within the next two weeks, Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, said following the meeting.

Limit on Talks

UN nuclear agency staff members have concluded Iran has enough information to be able to design and produce a workable atomic bomb, according to an unpublished IAEA report.

Excerpts of the report were posted on the Web site of the Institute for Science and International Security on Oct. 2. The report by experts at the IAEA was based on evidence provided by intelligence agencies and the agency’s own investigations, the ISIS said, adding that the report’s conclusions were tentative and subject to further revision.

The New York Times reported on the document yesterday, citing unidentified senior European officials. The Associated Press reported Sept. 17 that IAEA officials believe Iran has sufficient knowledge to produce a nuclear weapon.

The IAEA said Sept. 18 that there is “no concrete proof” that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.

Jones downplayed the Times report, saying there’s no indication Iran is closer to developing a nuclear bomb than public U.S. intelligence reports have indicated.

“We stand by the reports that we’ve put out,” Jones said on the CNN program.

Senators Urge Sanctions

U.S. senators said the report in the Times is further evidence that Iran cannot be trusted, that it’s trying to develop a nuclear weapon. The Congress should pass sanctions and set deadlines to force Iran to comply with UN mandates, they said.

“We need to have tough sanctions, financial and economic,” Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh said on “Fox News Sunday.” They should “have real deadlines and consequences if they don’t live up to their word because they have lied repeatedly in the past.”

Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, like Bayh a member of the armed services committee and also appearing on Fox, said the Senate should devote several days to passing sanctions such as one that would target Iran’s gasoline imports from Europe.

Pension Fund Divestment

Senators led by Bayh, Arizona Republican Jon Kyl and Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman are sponsoring legislation to penalize companies that continue to supply gasoline and other refined petroleum products to Iran, possibly including cutting them out of the U.S. market.

While Iran is the second-largest oil producer in the Middle East and intends to invest tens of billions of dollars to develop its natural gas reserves, it must buy gasoline from abroad because of limited refining capacity.

Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Casey said he and Republican Sam Brownback of Kansas are pressing legislation that would “allow pension fund entities around the country to divest pension fund assets out of companies that are doing business with Iran’s energy sector, up to a million level.”

Congress should give the president “all of the tools he needs to impose sanctions if he needs to act,” Casey, a member of the foreign relations committee, said on Fox.

Obama described the Oct. 1 talks as a “constructive beginning” and urged the Iranian government to follow up with “constructive action.” He said that negotiations over Iranian nuclear development can’t go on indefinitely and that the U.S. is ready to pressure Iran if its government isn’t responsive.

ElBaradei said today Iran was late in informing the IAEA about the building of its new enrichment facility. The agency’s regulations require countries to notify it on the day they start construction, he said. Iranian officials have argued the country is bound to inform the IAEA of the facility’s existence months before uranium enters the plant and said the plant is 18 months away from operation. The agency disagrees with Iran’s “interpretation” of the rules, ElBaradei said.

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg)