Replies

Iran to Present Full Nuke Picture to UN Soon-Envoy

Thu May 13, 2004 12:12 PM ET
Reuters
By Francois Murphy and Maria Golovnina

VIENNA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Iran has drafted a report aimed at providing a complete picture of its nuclear program and will hand it over to the U.N. nuclear watchdog "very soon," its ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna said Thursday.

Iran is due to present a complete account of its nuclear activities and plans to the International Atomic Energy Agency by mid-May, ahead of a meeting of the agency's board of governors next month.

"The report is ready," Iranian envoy Pirooz Hosseini told Reuters.

"After a final review by the experts, we will hand it over very soon to the agency," Hosseini said.

Washington says Iran's nuclear program is a front for building a nuclear bomb and has called for the IAEA's board to report Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for breaching the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which could lead to sanctions.

Iran says it is only interested in generating electricity and it wants the IAEA to take Iran off its agenda after the June meeting.

Diplomats close to the IAEA, however, say it is unrealistic to expect that all doubts about Iran's nuclear program will be dispelled by then.

A source in an Iranian nuclear delegation visiting Moscow Thursday told Russia's Ria-Novosti news agency the report would be ready in two days.

"A report answering all questions asked by the (International Atomic Energy Agency) is ready, and we will hand it over to the IAEA over the next two days," the source said.

In October, Iran gave the IAEA what it said was a full declaration of its atomic operations. But it omitted a number of research projects that could relate to a weapons program, such as advanced "P2" centrifuges that can make arms-grade uranium.

Iran said last week it had given P2 designs to the IAEA, but the agency has yet to resolve the main outstanding question about Iran's nuclear program -- traces of bomb-grade uranium found in the country last year.

Iran says the traces were on used centrifuge parts contaminated in Pakistan, but Islamabad has not allowed the IAEA to take samples to compare the traces with Pakistani uranium.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei described the P2 revelation as a "setback" and said he hoped Iran had no more such secrets.

But allegations it does have persisted. An Iranian exile who has reported accurately in the past on Tehran's nuclear program said the Iranian military was now overseeing some 400 experts mobilized to develop an atom bomb.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5135521