IRAN’S COOPERATION ON NUCLEAR ISSUE HELPS ALLAY CONCERNS

The decision of Iran to hand over documents on its past nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will help allay concerns that Iran is building nuclear weapons, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople said. On Wednesday, Iran said it would meet a key demand of the IAEA, which had given Tehran an October 31 deadline to clear up suspicions about its nuclear ambitions.  

"Iran’s decision to cooperate with the IAEA is an important step in allaying the concerns of the international community on its nuclear program. At this point, the IAEA’s primary and current concern is to ensure it has complete information about the origin and history of Iran's sophisticated uranium enrichment system. I hope that the documents that Iran will be submitting will be addressing this," Secretary Ople said. "While we continue to reiterate our call on Iran to cooperate fully and completely with the IAEA, we would like to welcome Iran’s recent agreement to cooperate. We would like to encourage Iran to continue to give its full cooperation," the Secretary added.  

"I would also like to join others in commending and thanking Britain, France and Germany who helped encourage Iran to give its full cooperation. I would like to note in particular, the success Britain, France and Germany had in getting Iran to pledge to implement a tough inspection regime ahead of Iran’s ratification of an inspection protocol," Secretary Ople said.  

Iran announced Tuesday it would comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspection demands, after meetings between Iranian officials and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany in the Iranian capital.  

"The Philippines continues to express confidence and hope that the issue of Iran’s nuclear program will be resolved within the context of the IAEA to the satisfaction of all sides. While we do not expect that this matter will be brought to the UN Security Council, we are also confident that the Security Council will be able to find a diplomatic and political solution," Secretary Ople said.  

The Philippines, which is the candidate endorsed by Asia to the Asian seat in the Security Council, hopes to join the Security Council as a non-permanent member for the term 2004-2005. END.