By RIA Novosti,
Tehran : Iran rejected on Tuesday the UN nuclear watchdog’s report on the country’s controversial nuclear program, saying concerns over alleged nuclear weapons research are ungrounded.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), presented the new report on Monday, saying Iran’s alleged studies into making nuclear warheads remain a matter of serious concern, and that Tehran must provide more information on its “missile-related activities”.
“Iran has answered all IAEA questions about the ‘alleged studies’ and, based on available documents, considers these accusations to be ungrounded and far-fetched,” Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying.
He called the new report “a vindication and reiteration of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities.”
The document will be discussed by the IAEA’s 35-member board of governors at a June 2-6 meeting in Vienna.
In his March report on Iran, El-Baradei said progress had been made in clearing up the remaining questions on past nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic, but that uncertainties over military aspects of previous uranium enrichment still had to be cleared up.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Sunday that Iran will continue transparent cooperation with the IAEA.
The diplomatic standoff between Iran and the West began almost six years ago over suspicions that Tehran was secretly developing atomic weapons. Tehran has always maintained that it needs nuclear technology for electricity generation only. Two rounds of UN sanctions have so far been imposed on Tehran – in December 2006 and March 2007.
Iran has so far defied three rounds of relatively mild United Nations Security Council sanctions over its nuclear program.