Posted on 05/24/2007 1:31:32 AM PDT by familyop
Iran dismissed a scathing report by the UN nuclear watchdog on Wednesday and argued it had provided the agency's inspectors with adequate access to it's nuclear facilities, according to the state IRNA news agency.
It was the first reaction in Tehran to the International Atomic Energy Agency report that sets the stage for a new round of punitive UN sanctions on Iran for its failure to halt the country's controversial nuclear enrichment program.
The IAEA findings said Iran continues to defy UN security council demands to scrap the controversial enrichment and has instead expanded its activities.
The report from Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, also faulted Tehran for blocking IAEA efforts to probe suspicious nuclear activities. It suggested that Iran's rollback of previous monitoring agreements was potentially as worrying as its defiance on enrichment.
"The access, that currently the (IAEA) agency has, has been based on Iran's legal commitments," IRNA quoted Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy organisation, as saying.
"There is no obstacle for legal inspections by the agency to Iran's nuclear facilities."
ElBaradei's report criticised Iran's continued refusal to allow the IAEA inspectors to visit a heavy water reactor now under construction at the central city of Arak and linked facilities, after it unilaterally curtailed an agreement with the agency earlier this year.
The report's findings could be an important trigger for possible new UN sanctions - which would be the third since such penalties were initially imposed on Tehran on December 23.
With the council's latest deadline for Iranian compliance ending on Thursday, new council consultations on sanctions could come within days.
The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran has consistently denied.
Saeedi defended Tehran's move earlier this year when the authorities decided to limit IAEA inspections in response to stepped-up UN sanctions, and decided to partially suspend its cooperation with the UN watchdog.
"The main reason for suspension of minor arrangements ... were the countries that planned resolutions in the UN security council," Saeedi was quoted as saying.
If those countries chose dialogue and legal and logical interactions with his country, Iran naturally would not have suspended the arrangements, Saeedi also said.
"It is the right of any country to suspend part of its commitments because of a lack of realisation of its own rights."
Iran insists it wants to master the technology only to meet future power needs and argues it is entitled to enrich under a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty provision giving all pact members the right to develop peaceful programs.
AP
March 2007: “ElBaradei: Iran not a nuclear threat to world”
Yeah, let’s go ahead and turn over our countries defense to the UN.
And just think if we only had BARACK OBAMA in the Whitehouse how much the World would love us!
Reliable sources indicate that if the "scathing report" does not cause Iran to change its behavior, the next step will be to threaten the use of "the comfy chair"...
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