The latest provisional deal reached between Iran and the European Union's "Three Big" powers on Teheran's nuclear program, if approved, will avoid an immediate showdown between them on whether the issue would be referred to the United Nations (UN) Security Council. 

The agreement, hammered out during two days of talks between Teheran and Britain, France and Germany that ended on Saturday, signaled a major breakthrough following a months-long deadlock between the parties.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to cease all nuclear fuel enrichment and reprocessing activities until it reaches a wider-ranging agreement with the three EU heavyweights that would allow Iran to receive economic, technological and security compensation in return for its abandoning uranium enrichment allegedly related with weapons.

Iran has stopped uranium enrichment programs since an earlier agreement with the Europeans in October of last year. But it has resumed such activities after its failure to persuade the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into giving up nuclear inspections in its territory at a meeting of the body's board of directors in June.

The United States has worked to gain the settlement of Iran's nuclear issue at the UN Security Council and remained doubtful of the Europeans' efforts to reach a compromise with the Islamic country.

The latest deal demonstrated the parties' sincerity to explore measures and ways to build trust on the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program.

The deal also manifested the three EU countries' position that Iran's nuclear program should and can be dealt with within the framework of the IAEA, the world's nuclear watchdog which, rather than the UN Security Council, enjoys the biggest authority in settling nuclear disputes worldwide.

According to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), which is overseen by the IAEA, every country enjoys the right of enrichment activities for peaceful purposes.

As a signatory of the NPT, Iran undoubtedly enjoys such privileges. And any suspicious activities in this process should be resolved within the framework of the IAEA in a way acceptable to both procedures.

Also, Teheran has many times reaffirmed its intentions of utilizing nuclear programs for civilian purposes.

According to the country's official IRNA news agency, its lawmakers had drafted a bill outlawing the state from developing nuclear weapons in a bid to show the world that its atomic ambitions are entirely peaceful.

The latest agreement has clearly shown the country's willingness to step towards this direction.

So at this time it seems a sensible choice to let Iran, the IAEA or other parties concerned, resolve the nuclear dispute through peaceful negotiations, given that this means giving them a greater chance for peace.

(China Daily November 9, 2004)