Middle East News

IAEA chief: No clean bill of health unless Iran cooperates

Mar 2, 2010, 11:47 GMT

Japanese Yukiya Amano, new Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria on 01 March 2010. EPA/GEORG HOCHMUTH

Vienna - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cannot confirm that Iran's nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes unless the country fully cooperates with the agency, its new chief Yukiya Amano said Monday in Vienna.

Amano was addressing the IAEA's governing board two weeks after issuing a report in which the organization for the first time spelled out concerns about possible current nuclear weapons work, rather than about past activities.

But the director general also made clear that the document makes no judgment: 'It does not say Iran has or had a nuclear weapons programme,' he told reporters.

The Japanese agency chief said the IAEA's information on Iran was 'broadly consistent and credible' in terms of technical details, time lines and involved Iranian entities.

Countering Iranian criticism, Amano said his experts had amassed a body of information that had been cross-checked and examined. 'After this process, we say that, altogether, it raises concern.'

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said that 'the report was unfortunately unjustified and not acceptable,' because it was too detailed and therefore confusing.

The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticized the IAEA's reports on Sunday for lacking independence from world powers such as the US, indirectly referring to information that the agency received from Western intelligence agencies.

In his statement to the IAEA board, Amano said that the IAEA is only able to verify that Iran does not divert any known nuclear material, 'but we cannot confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities because Iran has not provided the agency with the necessary cooperation.'

Although IAEA inspectors have had access to some nuclear sites, they have been barred seeing a number of installations, documents and officials.

'The only thing I can do is to continue to seek cooperation of Iran,' Amano said.

In the report issued two weeks ago, Amano also made clear that Iran has not been fulfilling the demands of the UN Security Council on halting uranium enrichment.

Instead, in February Iran started enriching uranium to a higher level than it had done previously, without giving IAEA inspectors time to adjust their surveillance regime, which includes cameras.

Amano said that the inspectors still had not finished changing the monitoring set-up, as discussions with Iranian officials on this issue were ongoing.

By boosting uranium enrichment, Tehran's leaders all but rejected an IAEA proposal from October to carry out this work in Russia and France.

Amano did not give his views on a recent Iranian counterproposal, but said the original draft deal was 'balanced and realistic' and would 'serve as a confidence-building measure.'

The IAEA proposal, which is also supported by the United States, remains on the table, he added.

In its counterproposal from February, Iran asked to buy nuclear fuel abroad or swap it directly for foreign fuel, rather than shipping out its uranium first as a sign of good will. Amano announced that he would consult with other countries about Iran's ideas.

Iran sent another letter to the IAEA on Monday, explaining that there was a confidence deficit vis-a-vis some Western countries, Soltanieh said.