Iran offers official explanation on IAEA report

Tehran’s Ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog Ali Asghar Soltanieh has provided more details about the nature of the Iranian nuclear program.

One week after the new International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Yukiya Amano, issued a report about Iran’s nuclear program, Soltanieh on Wednesday shed light on certain aspects of the Iranian nuclear work.

Amano, in his first report on Iran’s nuclear activities on February 18, once again verified the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran but called on Tehran to further discuss and cooperate on the issue of the alleged studies.

Iran reacted to the report, saying that, despite confirming the non-diversion of the country’s nuclear work, the report failed to mention Iran’s “explanations” and hence was “unbalanced.”

In an IAEA meeting on Wednesday, the Iranian envoy used rhetorical questions in a bid to enlighten the members about Iran’s 20 percent-enriched uranium and the issue of the alleged studies.

In his remarks, a copy of which was obtained by Press TV, Soltanieh asked if any new developments had taken place in the Iranian nuclear work indicating that it has been diverted to a military nuclear program.

“Since the previous report and since the new director general took the office, have the [International Atomic energy] Agency inspectors reported any new developments [in the Iranian nuclear program] except for the 20 percent uranium enrichment?” he asked.

“Did any critical developments pertaining to Iran’s nuclear work occur in the report of the former director general [Mohamed ElBaradei]? Did you find any nuclear material related to weapons, or indicative of any deviation toward military objectives,” he asked, adding that the answer was a definite no.

Soltanieh also asked the question as to whether any new information had been added to the issue of the alleged studies, which Iran considers as fabricated and devoid of any authentication.

The envoy said that Iran has only viewed the so-called evidence on the alleged studies in the form of “power point documents” and had found it lacking in credibility.

According to Soltanieh, Iran then provided a 117-page report and attended several meetings explaining why it called the document fabricated while the recent IAEA report suggested that Tehran had rejected the allegations without being cooperative enough with the IAEA.

He said that the new report should have mentioned that the issue of the alleged studies had not been authenticated, as confirmed by former IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, and that the so-called evidence on them did not bear any classified stamps, as confidential documents usually do.

Soltanieh then shifted to Iran’s 20 percent enrichment at its Natanz site.

Through correspondence between Iran and the IAEA, Iran informed the body that it wanted to enrich the uranium for Tehran’s research reactor and called on the IAEA to send inspectors to the country, he said.

The IAEA consequently informed Iran that the inspectors would be present in the country to remove the seals of the 30B cylinder containing LEU (Low Enriched Uranium).

Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), rejects the allegations of having military objectives in its nuclear program as politically motivated and says its nuclear work is totally peaceful and within the framework of the NPT.