US intelligence report validates IAEA assessment (Roundup)

Dec 4, 2007, 15:51 GMT

Vienna - A US intelligence report saying Iran had stopped its nuclear arms drive in 2003 tallied with the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) investigation into the country's nuclear programme, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday.

The new US assessment should 'help to defuse the current crisis,' ElBaradei said, urging all parties concerned to enter into negotiations without delay.

Iran halted its atomic weapons programme in late 2003 and seems less determined to develop nuclear arms than previously believed according to the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report released on Monday.

But the country continued to retain the option for nuclear weapons and has continued to enrich uranium and could have enough material to build a bomb between 2010 and 2015, the NIE said.

However, the IAEA never concluded Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons programme.

'The Estimate tallies with the Agency's consistent statements over the last few years that, although Iran still needs to clarify some important aspects of its past and present nuclear activities, the Agency has no concrete evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons programme or undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran,' ElBaradei said.

Despite the validation of efforts by IAEA inspectors, more verification work needed to be done, Vienna-based diplomats said. Iran still needed to improve transparency and cooperation.

Diplomats in Vienna stressed the need for Iran to come clean on its past and warned that the IAEA's knowledge in Iran's current activities was diminishing.

ElBaradei had been under fire for allegedly being too soft on Iran, and overstepping his mandate by negotiating a separate cooperation work plan with Iran.

The NIE report came as the United States and it partners are working on a fresh round of tougher UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

The report changed nothing on the new sanctions drive, European diplomats said. In fact, the US repositioning could facilitate Russia's agreement to sanctions.

Conclusions drawn from the NIE report should be seen as an 'opening through which to pursue negotiations,' one diplomat in Vienna said.