The United Nations nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that the latest U.S. intelligence report on Iran's nuclear activities was "consistent" with the organization's findings in recent years.
The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate released Monday said that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
"Although Iran still needs to clarify some important aspects of its past and present nuclear activities, the agency has no concrete evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program or undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran," Mohamed Elbaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),said in a statement.
This new assessment by the U.S. should help to defuse the current crisis, and encourage Iran to more actively cooperate with the IAEA on its current nuclear activities, he added.
An unidentified IAEA official also stated Tuesday that the U.S. report echoed the organization's assessment that Tehran represents "no imminent danger."
Iran quickly welcomed the report Tuesday, reiterating that its nuclear activities are purely civil, and saying that the report has cast a blow to the Bush administration.
"The condition of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities is becoming clear to the world," said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on a state radio.
Yet Britain, France and Israel have shown skepticism toward Iran's nuclear activities, insisting the pressure on the country must be kept up.
Source: Xinhua
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