IAEA rejects US charges over Iran report

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 14, 2003

IAEA rejects US charges over Iran report

The UN nuclear watchdog Thursday rejected US charges that the international institution's assertionof Iran's exclusion of nuclear weapons program was "simply impossible to believe."

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The UN nuclear watchdog Thursday rejected US charges that the international institution's assertionof Iran's exclusion of nuclear weapons program was "simply impossible to believe."

"We stand by the report," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman Mark Gwozdecky responded to the US charges.

John Bolton, US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said Wednesday in Washington that the IAEAreport was "impossible to believe" and that the report in fact supported the US view that Iran's concealment would "make sense only as part of a nuclear weapons program."

Gwozdecky refused to comment further, but said the 29-page report was still "a classified document" and will be reviewed at the Nov. 20 board meeting that could decide whether Tehran is in compliance with the safeguards agreement of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The meeting could also decide whether to file Iran's case in the UN Security Council, which could in turn impose economic sanctions on the oil and gas-rich country.

Iran's ambassador to the Vienna-based IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, warned Thursday that if the situation escalated to a stage when things could easily get out of control, the consequences would be "unpredictable."

The IAEA report, delivered to the agency's 35-nation board of governors Monday, has sparked considerable disputes over the conclusion that there was "no evidence" to date that Iran's nuclear program was for anything but peaceful purposes.

But the report also accused Iran of covert nuclear activities over the past 20 years, including making plutonium and enriching uranium, which the United States wants to be cited for Iran's failures in the implementation of the NPT.

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