Posted on 06/06/2003 9:09:03 AM PDT by knighthawk
VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency has accused Iran of failing to comply with its nuclear safeguards agreement, a diplomat has said.
But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) diplomat, who spoke to Reuters on Friday on condition of anonymity, quoted an unpublished report as saying that Iran was taking steps to rectify the situation.
"Iran has failed to meet its obligations under its safeguards agreement with respect to the reporting of nuclear material, the subsequent processing and use of that material and the declaration of facilities where that material was stored and processed."
The diplomat said the report explained that the quantities were not large and that steps were being taken to bring Iran into compliance with its safeguards agreement.
Last month, Reuters reported that IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei would tell the agency's Board of Governors on June 16 that Iran had committed minor violations of the NPT.
The diplomat said the IAEA report did not use the word "violation" in the text. However, Iran's failure to comply with its safeguards obligations may be interpreted as an NPT violation by some IAEA member countries.
Safeguards agreements with the IAEA are to ensure that nuclear materials and facilities in Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) member countries are not diverted to secret nuclear weapons programmes.
It was also unclear what the nuclear material was and how exactly it was processed.
Washington has accused Iran of violating the NPT and believes it has ambitions of developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies this and says its atomic programme is solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.
Diplomats have said they suspected Iran may possess undeclared uranium and that it may also have tested its uranium-enrichment systems using this nuclear material without telling the IAEA. They have also said this would probably be a violation of the NPT.
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