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U.N. watchdog gets details of Iran?s nuclear history
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U.N. watchdog gets details of Iran?s nuclear history
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog was to receive yesterday what Tehran says is a full declaration of its past nuclear activities, which Iran hopes will prove it has not been secretly developing atomic weapons.
A diplomatic source told Reuters Iranian officials would formally hand over the declaration to the United Nations agency?s chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, yesterday. The U.N. agency declined to confirm this. ?The last we heard the declaration had not yet arrived at the IAEA (headquarters),? a Western diplomat in Vienna told Reuters. Submission of the report meets a key demand of the Vienna- based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has given Tehran an October 31 deadline to clear up suspicions its nuclear programme goes beyond power production to arms development.
An IAEA spokeswoman said it would take at least several days to assess the contents of the report, awaited with great interest by a Washington administration that views Tehran as a sponsor of terrorist activity. IAEA experts will subject the report to rigorous examination. There are strong conservative forces in Iran that object to the IAEA?s intrusive investigations and see them only as a U.S. bid to discredit Tehran.
The IAEA is particularly keen to have details about the origin of uranium enrichment centrifuge parts, which Iran says it bought on the black market and blames for contaminating two Iranian sites where the IAEA found traces of bomb-grade uranium. Iran has always denied it seeks nuclear weapons and on Tuesday agreed to sign a protocol permitting more intrusive short-notice IAEA inspections and suspend uranium enrichment as part of a deal welcomed by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Louis Charbonneau
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