IAEA report: Iran continues to defy UN nuke demands

VIENNA: Iran has successfully enriched uranium and continues related activities in defiance of the UN Security Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)) said on Friday, the UN deadline for Teheran to suspend enrichment.

The finding was contained in a report drawn up by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei that also said Iran continued to rebuff agency efforts to get answers to questions linked to suspicions Iran was attempting to make nuclear arms.

"After more than three years of agency efforts to seek clarity about all aspects of Iran's nuclear programme, the existing gaps in knowledge continue to be a matter of concern," said the report. "Any progress in that regard requires full transparency and active co-operation by Iran."

The report formally served notice that Teheran had shrugged off a 30-day deadline to meet council demands to suspend all activities linked to enrichment because it can be used to make the highly enriched uranium used in the core of nuclear warheads. As such it opened the way for further council steps, including the potential threat of sanctions and military action if Iran continues to defy the international community.

On enrichment the report, obtained by the Associated Press, said Iran's claim to have enriched small amounts to a level of 3.6 per cent fuel grade uranium as opposed to weapons grade enriched to levels above 90 per cent appeared to be true according to initial IAEA analysis of samples it took.

In one of the few new developments in the IAEA's investigation of more than three years, the report concluded that Iran used undeclared plutonium in conducting small-scale separation experiments.

"The agency cannot exclude the possibility ... that the plutonium analyzed by the agency was derived from source(s) other than declared by Iran," the report said. Plutonium separation is one of the suspect "dual use" activities that could be used for a weapons programme.

But Iran refused to give further information on other key issues details of Iran's centrifuge programmes that are used to enrich uranium, information on drawings that show how to form fissile uranium into warheads and apparent links between Iran's military establishment and what it says is a civilian nuclear programme.

The conclusion on enrichment was not surprising just hours before it was issued, Iran again defied a formal Security Council request to freeze uranium enrichment and related activities.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Friday that no resolutions from the United Nations Security Council could make Iran abandon its legal nuclear rights, state television reported.

"The Iranian nation doesn't attach any importance to such meaningless resolutions," Ahmadinejad addressed a rally of thousands of people in northwestern Iran.

"They think they can force us to give up our rights through sanctions, but nuclear energy is a national demand and thanks to God, Iran is already a nuclear country now," he added.

John Bolton, US ambassador to the United Nations, already has said he plans to introduce a resolution requiring Teheran to comply with the council's demand to stop its enrichment program. The resolution would not call for sanctions now, but could lead to one under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows for sanctions and is militarily enforceable.

"The first resolution would be simple and straightforward, 'making mandatory' last month's council requests on suspension of enrichment and full cooperation with IAEA inspectors," Bolton said. "We would give Iran a short time to come into compliance.

"If Iran doesn't come into compliance, we would consider what the next steps would be ... likely targeted sanctions," he said.

Source: China Daily