IAEA blames Iran of producing nuke gas
Foreign Desk Report

VIENNA (Austria)—Iran has produced nearly seven tons of the gas used in uranium enrichment since last month, a U.N. report said Friday. Experts said that amount was enough to produce a nuclear bomb. In unusually strong language, the report also said questions remain about key aspects of 18 years of clandestine nuclear activity on Iran’s part despite more than two years of investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency. “The agency is not yet in a position to clarify some important outstanding issues after 2 1/2 years of intensive inspections and investigation,” according to the confidential document, which was seen by The Associated Press. “Iran’s full transparency is indispensable and overdue.” The report, prepared by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, came on the eve of an informal deadline for Iran to cease conversion activities at a nuclear facility in central Iran.
It said Iran had produced about 15,000 pounds of uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feed stock that is spun by centrifuge into enriched uranium. Depending on the level of enrichment, that substance can be used either as a source of power or as the core of nuclear weapons.
The document did not make a finding on whether Iran was pursuing such a weapon, and Tehran insists its intentions are only to generate nuclear power. But former IAEA nuclear inspector David Albright said that — were Tehran to use the material for weapons purposes — it would be enough for one atomic bomb. Iran said the latest report on its nuclear activities published by the UN’s atomic energy watchdog contained criticism of the Islamic republic that was politically motivated.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, nevertheless pledged Iran would continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Larijani said the criticism of Iran in the report was “neither legal nor technical” — repeating Iran’s argument that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) it has the “right” to carry out fuel cycle work for peaceful purposes. “We don’t think this political part is important. We will continue our cooperation with the agency (IAEA) so that the small questions that are unresolved will be resolved,” Larijani told state television. “Things are on the right track,” he added.
Larijani’s comments came as IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei was releasing his latest report on Iran’s compliance with his agency, which said Iran had failed to suspend nuclear fuel work and that its full cooperation in clearing up questions about its nuclear program was “overdue”.
Since the IAEA “is not yet in a position to clarify some important outstanding issues after two and a half years of intensive inspections and investigation, Iran’s full transparency is indispensable and overdue,” the IAEA said in a confidential report seen by newsmen. Tehran is suspected of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of an atomic energy drive, a charge it denies.
The crisis worsened last month when Iran resumed uranium conversion work in protest over demands from Britain, France and Germany that it abandon the fuel cycle in exchange for incentives. A report on Iran’s nuclear program that could help send Tehran to the UN Security Council will be circulated among diplomats accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency, envoys said Friday.
The diplomats, who are close to the Vienna-based IAEA, declined to divulge specifics of the report, drawn up by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei. But they said it was not expected to contain revelations that would decide either in favor of US assertions that Iran is trying to make a nuclear weapons or give additional weight to Tehran’s argument that its program was geared solely to generating power.
Still, ElBaradei is expected to confirm that Iran has resumed and is continuing uranium conversion, a precursor to enrichment, despite an informal deadline set by key European nations to reimpose a freeze on the activity by Saturday or face the threat of Security Council referral by the 35-nation IAEA board. Iran is the main agenda item of that meeting, which opens Sept. 19.
Tehran last month rejected economic and other incentives offered by Britain, France and Germany — negotiating on behalf of the EU — and resumed conversion. France called on Iran early this week to cooperate in nuclear talks or risk having the issue sent to the UN Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.
Uranium conversion is an early stage on the nuclear fuel cycle that precedes enrichment. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make weapons. At lower levels, it is used in power generation. Iran argues it has a right to enrichment for peaceful purposes. The Europeans say Tehran broke its word by unilaterally resuming conversion while still negotiating with the European Three on ways to reduce international suspicions about its nuclear agenda
The diplomats, who demanded anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the confidential report with the media, told the report would also likely expand on IAEA findings that traces of enriched uranium were imported to Iran on equipment from Pakistan it bought on the black market. That recent revelation hurt US arguments that the traces were likely the result of enrichment done in Iran, as part of attempts to make weapons grade uranium.
But Washington argues other questions remain open, including the scope and nature of plutonium experiments; gaps in Iran’s centrifuge development program; lack of clarity on what exactly Iran bought on the nuclear black market, and Tehran’s refusal to grant IAEA inspectors access to suspect sites.
Iran’s chief atomic negotiator said on Friday he hoped an upcoming report by the UN’s nuclear watchdog would contain “positive points” that would encourage Tehran to cooperate more with the agency.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to distribute a new report on Iran’s nuclear programme on Friday or Saturday to the 35 nations on the IAEA’s board of governors.
Diplomats in Vienna, the headquarters of the IAEA, say the report will likely spark US and EU calls to refer Iran’s case to the UN Security Council.
Speaking to reporters after returning from a trip to India, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, said he hoped IAEA chief Mohamed Elbaradei would recognize Tehran’s cooperation with the agency to date in the report.
“I hope that due to the appropriate cooperation between Iran and the IAEA, ElBaradei’s report contains some positive points to facilitate Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA,” the ISNA students news agency quoted him as saying.
The report is expected to summarize the IAEA’s nearly three-year investigation into Iran’s nuclear programme and say Tehran did not comply with the IAEA board’s August 11 demand that it reinstate a full suspension of all sensitive nuclear work, diplomats on the IAEA board told Reuters in Vienna.
“The report will not have a harsh tone, but it is expected to confirm that Iran ended part of the suspension,” a European diplomat told Reuters on Thursday. “It will also outline a number of open questions about Iran’s nuclear programme”.
Confirmation that Iran refused to resume the suspension, which was the cornerstone of a November 2004 deal with France, Britain and Germany, would likely prompt the European Union to join Washington in pushing for Iran’s case to be referred to the UN Security Council for punitive action, EU diplomats said.
The report will also list numerous unanswered questions about Iran’s nuclear programme on topics like its work with plutonium, which can be used to fuel atom bombs, and its contacts with a Pakistani-led clandestine network that supplied Libya with technology to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said.
Iran, which denies US allegations that it is developing nuclear weapons, says it has answered almost all of the IAEA’s questions about its atomic activities and shown its ambitions are limited to harnessing nuclear power to generate electricity.
But it angered the EU by resuming uranium processing work last month at a plant in Isfahan — a move which has brought talks between Iran and the EU close to collapse and led EU officials to threaten UN Security Council referral.
Larijani said Iran was open to talks with the EU and other countries about its nuclear programme, but did not feel bound by these negotiations. “Talks could continue with Europeans, but the legitimacy of Iran’s nuclear activities does not come from those talks,” he said. He reiterated that Iran would shortly propose a new initiative to solve its nuclear impasse which would “give other countries the objective guarantees they need about Iran’s nuclear activities” while preserving Tehran’s goal of creating a full-scale civilian atomic programme.