Iran: IAEA nuclear reports "tiring game"

Nov 17, 2009, 10:00 GMT

   Tehran - Iran on Tuesday said the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proved that the nature of its nuclear projects was peaceful, rejecting the UN nuclear guardian's criticism that its delays in submitting information did little to inspire confidence.

   Iran's IAEA envoy, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, criticized parts of the report which he called irrelevant, and said it contained unnecessary technical details, which he said had nothing to do with the main issue of whether Iran's nuclear programmes were peaceful.

   'The reports on this [the Iranian nuclear] case are gradually turning into a tiring game and the IAEA should know that politicizing the issue would just harm its own credibility,' he told the Khabar news network.

   Iran informed the Vienna-based agency in September that it has been building an additional uranium enrichment plant in Fordu, 20 kilometres north of the city of Qom. The plant is set to become operational in 2011.

   The IAEA said Monday in its latest report that Iran's belated revelation about the Fordu site raised questions about whether there might be other still-secret facilities.

   The restricted report said that 'Iran's delay in submitting such information to the agency does not contribute to the building of confidence.'

    The IAEA reiterated in its report that Iran would have been obliged to provide information about the new site as soon as it decided to build it. Construction activities at the site have probably been ongoing since 2002.

   Soltanieh insisted that the main issue was whether Iran was deviating from international regulations to pursue prohibited programmes, which the latest report once again showed was not the case.

   Soltanieh also called on Western powers to stop prejudging and to confine their comments to the main issues in the IAEA reports.

   The IAEA's nuclear inspectors also still have more questions about the purpose of the Fordu project and its timeline.

   Western officials have alleged that such a small plant can only been have built for making nuclear weapons material, rather than fuel for a power reactor that is under construction.

   'It goes without saying that it will not be able to cover the needs of Bushehr power plant,' a senior official close to the IAEA said about Fordu, without drawing conclusions about Iran's intentions.

   Experts have noted that Fordu's future capacity of producing around 1,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium per year corresponds to the amount needed for one nuclear bomb, if the material is processed further.