Innocent or fraudulent?
Photo: Reuters
Iran using 'fraud and evasion' to promote nuclear agenda
Foreign Ministry warns international community against complacency, says recent IAEA report on Islamic republic's nuclear program does nothing to lessen concern over Tehran's nuclear program
Israel accused Iran of continued "fraud and evasion," pursuant to a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and said that "there is nothing in Iran's response that should lessen the concern of the international community vis-à-vis its nuclear program."
According to the IAEA report, the Islamic republic was continuing to defy United Nations demands to suspend uranium enrichment - a process used to make both nuclear fuel and the fissile material for an atom bomb.
Status of weapons?
Associated Press
IAEA chief says Tehran yet to obtain necessary raw unenriched uranium to build even single nuclear weapon. Meanwhile another round of talks amongst UN Security Council members on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program fails to yield results
"Regrettably, as a result of the lack of cooperation by Iran in connection with the alleged studies and other associated key remaining issues of serious concern, the agency has not been able to make substantive progress on these issues," said the restricted report.
"This report emphasizes again that Iran is repeatedly violating UN Security Council decisions. It underscores the military elements in Iran's nuclear activities," the Foreign Ministry said in an official statement.
"Despite the fact that the IAEA takes the information presented to it at face value, Israel once again calls on members of the international community to increase the pressure on the Iranian government in order for it to abandon its threatening program to achieve nuclear energy," the statement read.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert , who will set out for Washington on Sunday, is expected to spend much of his time discussing the issue of a nuclear Iran. He hopes to be able to convince the American administration to advance sanctions against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.
Senior Israeli officials believe there is still time to stop the Iranian nuclear program in its tracks and are exploring all options to do so. In addition to diplomatic appeals to the US and European nations, including Russia, they hinted that non-diplomatic options are "still on the table."
AFP contributed to this report
