'No evidence' Iran tried to make nuclear bombs
A confidential UN nuclear agency report found “no evidence” that Iran tried to make atomic arms, but it criticised Teheran for cover-ups and warned it is still uncertain if Iran’s nuclear efforts were for peaceful purposes, diplomats said.
The report also found that Iran had produced small amounts of enriched uranium and plutonium, according to the Washington Post.
In Moscow, a top Iranian official said his country was temporarily halting its uranium enrichment programme and had agreed to tougher UN inspections.
Citing the report by the head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the diplomats said the 29-page document accused Iran of not telling the truth in the past about its nuclear programmes.
The report, prepared for a November 20 meeting of the IAEA board of governors, comes as the United States continues to focus attention on Iran’s nuclear activities.
The Bush administration has argued that Iran should be declared in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty – a move that would lead to UN Security Council involvement and possible sanctions.
The diplomats said the IAEA report also credited Iran for a change of heart since September, when the agency demanded it clear up suspicions it was running a covert weapons programme by explaining contradictions and ambiguities in its nuclear activities.
“To date, there is no evidence that the previously undeclared nuclear material and activities … were related to a nuclear weapons programme,” said a diplomat.
“However, given Iran’s previous pattern of concealment, it will take some time before the agency is able to conclude that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes.”
The Washington Post said the report found that Iran manufactured small amounts of enriched uranium and plutonium as part of a nuclear programme that operated in secret.
“Iran has now acknowledged that it has been developing, for 18 years, a uranium centrifuge programme, and, for 12 years, a laser enrichment programme,” the Post said.
Under international pressure, Iran recently gave the agency what it said was a complete declaration of its nuclear activities just days ahead of an October 31 deadline. On Monday, it also handed over two letters pledging to sign an additional agreement throwing open its program to inspection on demand by agency experts and announcing it had suspended uranium enrichment.
