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IAEA board meeting
Photo: AP
IAEA Cheif Yukiya Amano
Photo: AFP

IAEA chief: Iran is not cooperating

UN watchdog convenes 35-nation board meeting to discuss harsh report on Tehran nuclear activity. 'We cannot confirm all nuclear material is for peaceful activities because Iran has not provided necessary cooperation,' says IAEA Cheif Yukiya Amano

Iran is not cooperating sufficiently with the UN atomic watchdog in its investigation into the Islamic Republic's contested nuclear activities, agency chief Yukiya Amano said on Monday.

 

"The agency continues ... to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran, but we cannot confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is for peaceful activities because Iran has not provided the agency with the necessary cooperation," Amano said Monday at the start of a 35-nation IAEA board meeting focusing on Iran's nuclear defiance.

 

Iran has refused to heed UN Security Council demands that it stop uranium enrichment. It is also stonewalling an International Atomic Energy Agency probe of its alleged attempts to build a nuclear weapons program.

 

Iran insists its activities are peaceful. However many nations fear it wants to build nuclear weapons.

In a report issued two weeks ago, the agency under its new leadership demonstrated its new attitude toward the Islamic Republic.

 

The report confirmed Iran had produced its first, small batch of uranium enriched to a higher purity - 20% - but said the Islamic Republic had failed to give inspectors the required advance notice.

 

On Sunday Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei charged the US and its allies for being behind the UN nuclear watchdog agency's claim that Iran may be making nuclear bombs, despite its repeated denials.


IAEA board meeting (Photo: AP)

 

"Some IAEA reports and actions show that this international agency lacks independence," the television quoted Khamenei as saying. "The IAEA should not be influenced by the US and some (other) countries because unilateral acts erode trust in the agency and the United Nations. It is also very bad for the prestige and reputation of these international bodies."

 

Deputy Commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards Hossein Salami also responded with a harsh statement on Sunday, and said, "Iran is standing on 50 percent of the world's energy and should it so decide Europe will have to spend the winter in cold."

 

The West will discuss the possibility of implementing another round of sanctions on Iran through the UN's Security Council. Iran's hostile position has led to three previous rounds of sanctions – the first one on December 2006, the second on March 2007 and the third on March 2008.

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.01.10, 15:33
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