EU recognizes Iranian right to peaceful energy: diplomats

Agence France-Presse (AFP):

05/08/2005 10h46

General view of Isfahan (UCF) nuclear power plant 295km

VIENNA (AFP) - The European Union offer submitted to Iran on Friday recognizes the Islamic Republic's right to peaceful nuclear energy but not to making atomic fuel with possible weapons use, diplomats said.

The EU says it "respects Iran's rights under the (nuclear) Non-Proliferation Treaty for the peaceful use of nuclear energy," a diplomat at the UN atomic agency in Vienna told AFP in summarizing the report.

But the diplomat, who is following the EU-Iran talks, said the EU proposal rules out Iran being able to make the highly enriched uranium and reprocessed plutonium which are fuel for civilian nuclear power plants but can also be used to make atom bombs.