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Iran nuclear plans of "serious concern": U.N. body

Written by USA Radio Network

Friday, 22 February 2008

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday Iran had failed to explain Western intelligence reports showing explosives and missile work linked to making atomic bombs and that this was a "serious concern". The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had dismissed the intelligence as "baseless" or "fabricated" but had not provided acceptable answers. It said Iran had provided increased cooperation on other issues in the past few months. Iran's increased transparency amounted to a doubled-edged sword as it reaffirmed Tehran was forging ahead with uranium enrichment in defiance of U.N. Security Council demands to stop all proliferation-sensitive nuclear activity. The IAEA findings, which also said Iran had failed to clear up all outstanding questions by an agreed February deadline, may spur the Security Council to adopt more sanctions as early as next week. The United States, which has accused Iran of having a secret program to build nuclear weapons, said Tehran had failed to meet U.N. demands and that it would go on pressing for new sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Senior diplomats from Britain, France, Germany, the United States, China and Russia would meet in Washington on Monday to discuss the next steps over Iran, Western officials said. Iran, which says its nuclear program is only for power generation to meet the growing demands of its economy, hailed the IAEA's comments as a victory because it said the watchdog had found Tehran was pursuing peaceful activities. In unusually strong wording, the IAEA said in a report Iran had not so far explained documentation pointing to undeclared efforts to "weaponize" nuclear materials by linking uranium processing with explosives and designing of a missile warhead. Publishing details of the intelligence, the IAEA described tests on a 400-metre (1,300 ft) firing shaft seen as "relevant" to atomic arms research and a schematic layout of a missile cone "quite likely to be able to accommodate a nuclear device". Add as favourites (88) | Quote this article on your site Be first to comment this article Only registered users can write comments. Please login or register. AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com All right reserved

Last Updated ( Friday, 22 February 2008 )

 

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