By DPA
Vienna : Iran is cooperating with IAEA inspectors to resolve outstanding issues, but continues to defy UN Security Council resolutions to suspend uranium enrichment, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Thursday.
In a confidential report released to its 35-nation board, the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog laid out details of a work plan negotiated with Teheran to resolve remaining questions of Iran’s nuclear programme.
As a first result, questions of Iran’s past plutonium experiments and highly enriched uranium contamination found on equipment were resolved, the IAEA said.
“The work plan is a significant step forward,” the report said.
IAEA deputy director general Olli Heinonen said Iran was facing a “litmus test” that it could provide answers to IAEA questions in a timely manner.”
A timeline for resolving questions regarding Iran’s P1-P2 enrichment centrifuges was agreed. Iran agreed to cooperate on a list of outstanding questions left previously unanswered in the IAEA’s four-year investigation of Iran’s nuclear activities.
“If they don’t cooperate, it jumps into their face”, a senior UN official said, commenting on the report.
“If Iran finally addresses the long outstanding verification issues, the agency should be in a position to reconstruct the history of Iran’s nuclear programme,” IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei said in his 9-page report.
Iran however needed to implement the Additional Protocol, thereby granting further reaching inspection rights, in order to solve all outstanding issues and build future confidence, the IAEA urged.
The report pointed out that 12 164-machine cascades were running with uranium hexaflouride as of August 19, with four more either being tested or under construction.
Activities were however progressing slower than originally, a senior diplomat said. But, as Iran was not implementing the Additional Protocol, IAEA knowledge on fuel-cycle-related activities was limited.
Deflecting criticism that negotiated settlement stipulated that there would be no more questions after those lined up by the IAEA, Heinonen stressed that the IAEA would continue to ask questions, if the answers provided were not satisfactory.
“This process continues until we can make a conclusion,” Heinonen said.