IAEA says Iran continues to defy UN
Confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report says Tehran has not only ignored Security Council deadline to stop uranium enrichment activity but expanded it, starting up more than 1,300 centrifuge machines
Iran's defiance of another 60-day deadline set by the Council when it imposed a second set of sanctions on March 24 will expose Tehran to tougher penalties over its nuclear work, which the West fears is a front for assembling atom bombs.
"Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities. Iran has continued with the operation of their pilot fuel enrichment plant and with construction of their (planned industrial underground) enrichment plant," the UN nuclear watchdog said in its report.
"It has started feeding cascades with UF6 (uranium gas). Iran has also continued with its heavy water-related projects."
But it said the amount of uranium gas fed into the cascade was far below the 80-90 percent suitable to detonate an atom bomb.
Concern about Iran's intentions remain high as it is still evading IAEA investigations into the murky origins and procurement activities of the atomic program and unexplained indications of military involvement, UN officials aid.
"Although no commercial amounts of enriched uranium are being produced yet, it is clear their program is advancing," one official said.
"Unless Iran addresses long-outstanding verification issues, and implements ... required transparency measures, the Agency will not be able to fully reconstruct the history of Iran's nuclear program and provide assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran or about the exclusively peaceful nature of that program," the report said.
'Major powers to insist Iran stop atomic work'
US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said on Wednesday that the major world powers will insist Iran halts all nuclear enrichment and rejects a compromise put forward by the head of the UN nuclear watchdog.
At the White House, a spokesman called the new IAEA report "a laundry list of Iran's continued defiance of the international community that shows that Iran's leaders are only furthering the isolation of the Iranian people."
The State Department's Burns said, "We are not going to agree to accept limited enrichment, to accept that 1,300 centrifuges can continue spinning at their plant at Natanz.
In Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the international community should focus on preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear arms.
"The findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency prove that time is critical," Livni said in response to the UN report.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert released a statement saying that Israel was concerned by the report.
"The continuation of Iran's enrichment activities is a source for concern but it is not enough to point that Iran has reached the capacity of industrial enrichment," read the statement.
