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A FAIR DEAL: ElBaradei says the nuclear agreement with India is fair and reasonable.

      

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Mohammed ElBaradei: Correct. Actually starting a formal negotiating process with India.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: However, in other words, the informal talks are heading towards preparing a text that should be agreed upon?

Mohammed ElBaradei: I don’t think we are at that stage yet. I think we are talking about what we would need if we have to start the safeguards negotiations.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: You’ve also said that the timeline doesn’t really matter and that this agreement can be done at any time with IAEA. Can you just clarify this a little bit? There have been talks of how the IAEA meeting will require at least a five-week notice period, if not 45 days, for even it to consider within a 72-hour notice period clearing of a safeguards agreement. What’s the factual position on this?

Mohammed ElBaradei: The Board can meet on one day’s notice.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: But it will have to have a text ready?

Mohammed ElBaradei: Of course, it will have to have a text ready. And we’ll have to give Board the time to study that text. But the Board meets regularly. The next meeting is in November. There’s no reason that if there’s an agreement the Board will not meet specifically for it.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: Is that meeting on November 22?

Mohammed ElBaradei: Yes. And I think that’s why people start talking about the deadline. If we don’t make the November board, we can always have another meeting as a regular board. Once there’s an agreement within India and between India and the Secretariat to go ahead with the safeguards agreements, the rest of it is procedure and we can overcome that easily.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar: In other words, there isn’t any deadline that’s stemming out of getting a safeguards agreement cleared at the IAEA. But there might be pressure on the Government to push it as early as possible so that US, which is committed to the deal, to get this through at the supplier’s meeting while President Bush is still the President and Congress has time to consider the deal. Is that right?