IAEA: Iran May Be Withholding Nuke Info

U.N. Agency Suggests Tehran Continues To Stonewall Nuclear Arms Probe

(CBS/AP)  Iran may be withholding information needed to establish whether it tried to make nuclear arms, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday in an unusually strongly worded report.

The tone of the language suggesting Tehran continues to stonewall the U.N. nuclear monitor revealed a glimpse of the frustration felt by agency investigators stymied in their attempts to gain full answers to suspicious aspects of Iran's past nuclear activities.

A senior U.N. official familiar with the investigation into Iran's nuclear program said none of the dozens of agency reports issued in that context had ever been as plain spoken in calling Tehran to task for not being forthright. He agreed to discuss the report only if granted anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to the media.

Iran has described its cooperation with the agency's probe as positive, suggesting it was providing information requested by agency officials.

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, said as much again Monday, telling The Associated Press that the report described "the peaceful nature of our nuclear actions."

"The Americans failed ... in shameful attempts" to co-opt the agency into delivering anti-Iranian findings, he said.

He noted a paragraph in the report saying that agency experts had been given access to all declared nuclear material in Iran and verified that all of it was accounted for.

But Gregory L. Schulte, his U.S. counterpart, suggested the report was a strong indictment of Iran's defiance of the international community's efforts to get answers about troubling parts of its nuclear program, noting it "details a long list of questions that Iran has failed to answer."

"At the same time that Iran is stonewalling its inspectors, it's moving forward in developing its enrichment capability in violation of Security Council resolutions," Schulte told the AP.

He described parts of the report as a "direct rebuttal" of Iranian claims that all nuclear questions had been answered.

"The nuclear watchdog agency's Iran report, which will be formally presented next week, places the burden squarely in the lap of the U.N. Security Council to consider next steps, since the report concludes that there still unanswered questions about a military dimension of Iran's uranium enrichment," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N.

"Because it makes everyone justifiably nervious that Iran is moving forward on its nuclear program, and because Russia and China just inked a billion dollar deal to cooperate on nuclear energy," Falk said, "we will surely begin to hear new proposals on how to deal with the nuclear issue from U.S. presidential candidates."

"Iran has defied three U.N. Security Council resolutions which demand a freeze of its uranium enrichment program, and U.S. policymakers are beginning to look to more multilateral negotiation with Russia and China after the U.S. presidential election in order to find a way out of Iran's advancing nuclear program," Falk said.

U.S. intelligence says Iran stopped work on nuclear weapons in 2003 but some other nations believe such activities continued past that date. The report noted Iran continued to deny such allegations.

Obtained by the AP, the restricted report forwarded to the U.N. Security Council and to the 35 board members of the IAEA said Iran remains defiant of the council's demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.

Shrugging off three sets of council sanctions, Iran has expanded its operational centrifuges - machines that churn out enriched uranium - by about 500 since the last IAEA report, in February, the new report said.

In announcing major progress in his government's push for nuclear power, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last month that Iranian scientists were putting 6,000 new uranium enriching centrifuges into place and testing a new type that worked five times faster.

The IAEA report noted Iran now had only 3,500 centrifuges and said the few advanced machines actually running were only in a testing phase. Still the senior U.N. official said Iran's goal of 6,000 machines running by the summer was "pretty much plausible."

Uranium can be used as nuclear reactor fuel or as the core for atomic warheads, depending on the degree of enrichment.

Running smoothly, 3,000 centrifuges could produce enough nuclear material for a bomb within 18 months. But Iran insists it is only working to produce fuel for reactors that will generate electricity and says it has a right to conduct enrichment for such purposes under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

In addressing whether Iran was complying with IAEA requests, the report appeared to come down on the side of the U.S. "Iran has not provided the Agency with all the information, access to documents and access to individuals necessary to support Iran's statements" that its activities are purely peaceful in intent, it said.

"The Agency is of the view that Iran may have additional information, in particular on high explosives testing and missile related activities which ... Iran should share with the agency," the report said. It was referring to two alleged sets of tests that IAEA officials say could be linked to a nuclear weapons program.

The allegations of nuclear military programs "remain a matter of serious concern," the report said. Suggesting fears of clandestine weapons activities remain, it added: "Clarification of these is critical to an assessment of the nature of Iran's past and present nuclear program."

Iran already rejected evidence provided by the U.S and other IAEA board members on alleged weapons programs in February, but then promised to revisit the issue before the agency's next board meeting in a week.

Intelligence received by the IAEA in its investigations, as well as from the U.S. and other agency board member nations, suggest Iran experimented with an undeclared uranium enrichment program that was linked to a missile project and drew up blueprints on refitting missiles to allow them to carry nuclear warheads.

The intelligence also suggested Iran was researching construction of an underground site that apparently could be used to test fire nuclear bombs and ordered "dual use" equipment from abroad that could be part of an atomic weapons program.

Additionally, Iran possesses diagrams showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads.

Its nuclear work has been under IAEA investigation since 2003, when a dissident Iranian group revealed the existence of a clandestine enrichment program.

[minnick8-2009]

I really think it would be nice if all the America haters who dislike Americans and anything American would get off the Internet and turn off their computers. They should turn off their electric lights, unplug their TVs, refrigerators, and electric stoves. They should park their cars and refuse to fly in planes. They should crawl back under the rocks they crawled out from, and leave the rest of us alone.

[minnick8-2009]

Bombing Iran is not going to get them to open all the way on their nuclear past history. It would make any cooporation impossible, to be added to all the other problems that action would bring. It would rank as a worse mistake than invading Iraq.
Posted by clestes

I don''t think anyone is talking about bombing Iran with conventional weapons. Personally, I was thinking we ought to nuke them.

[minnick8-2009]

He should blow himself up just like the rest of his jihadist pals so he can go meet his 72 virgins at the gates of Hades.
Posted by Repent6

Praise the Lord, I''m so glad that I''m not a virgin. Can you imagine the horror to get to the other side after a lifetime of abstinence only to find out you are now in a harem for an Islamic terrorist. Now that would certainly be hell.

[clestes-2009]

If ElBaradei is saying Iran is stonewalling the IAEA, then I believe it. Now if shrub was saying this, I would not because shrub has a long history of mistakes on just about everything he says that concerns the middle east (along with everything else).

This is reason for concern and diplomatic pressure involving Russia and China along with the US and other members of the UN should be applied.

It is NOT a reason for attacking Iran. Bombing Iran is not going to get them to open all the way on their nuclear past history. It would make any cooporation impossible, to be added to all the other problems that action would bring. It would rank as a worse mistake than invading Iraq.

[wardoglrs]

Just more BS...Move along nothing to see here. ;)

[harrydoghiny]

Gee, another "anonymous" report. Darth just doesn''t give up.

[tucano2]

Hiding no more than is Israel.

[rwkincaide]

Stop worrying and learn to love the bomb. How are we going to get nuclear weapons away from the crazy Zionists without killing millions? Impossible. So why worry about the ayatollahs getting the bomb? Might help to counterbalance the Zionist nuclear threat.

[lochlan-2009]

"Iran May Be Withholding Nuke Info"

So, Iran may "not" be withholding Nuke info.

[ajaxtheleast]

BEING TREATED TODAY!!

THREE TOPICS TO BE SCARED WITLESS BY.



OR ... "LESS" WITH THE SYLLABLE THAT
BEST DEFINES YOUR REACTION TO THESE
TERRIBLE TERRIBLE MUSLIMS.

[lfitts1]

This isn''''t even the real report...this is Israeli propaganda folks!

Posted by jh6379

Actually that is your reprise for everything...Iran is committed to make a nuclear explosive...the problem is that Bush is so stupid and has so alienated the entire world we can''t build consensus to stop them...but no it is not Israel''s fault--sorry

[babyj0205]

I SAY IF THEY WANT TO LEARN HOW TO ENRICH URANIUM TO MAKE NUCLEAR WAR HEADS I SAY LETS SEND SOME TO THEM.THEY CAN STUDIES AS IT BLOWS

[dmhphils]

"At the same time that Iran is stonewalling its inspectors, it''s moving forward in developing its enrichment capability in violation of Security Council resolutions," Schulte told the AP.


Ahmagonnajihad was born to blow up something!

[dmhphils]

Running smoothly, 3,000 centrifuges could produce enough nuclear material for a bomb within 18 months.

Visualize Ahmagonnajihad with a bomb.

[dmhphils]

Anyhow Iran signed the NPT...something which Israel has not done.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by jh6379 at 08:50 AM : May 27, 2008

Further proof that Ahmagonnajihad is a frigging liar and has only one, I say one, agenda......destroy ISrael and spread Islam all over the place.

[ajayvee]

Why Iran insists on being secretive about their nuclear program truly escapes me? It is so foolish. Why can''t they be open and transparent like their neighbour Israel? If they keep up this show of disobedience, obviously it will not be long before the Knesset orders the American government to invade. And then what?

[bluestardad]

IF YOU RESEARCH THIS INSTEAD OF RUNNING TO THE KOOL AID YOU WILL FIND THAT THIS REPORT IS PUT OUT BY A PRO ISRAELI MEMBER OF THE UN!

WHEN WILL AMERICA LEARN?

START WAR CRIMES TRIALS AND STOP THESE IDIOTS!

AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!

[hungry1968]

Why would the IAEA do this?

Are they TRYING to start ANOTHER unjustified war?

[navyretired2]

"I know many veterans who have realized the horror they have participated in and changed their minds. Once they figured out the purpose of the military is to protect the rich trash and to control foreign lands for the big American corporations. And the poor cannon fodder who buy into the military propaganda who are so closed minded they choose to stay ignorant and undereducated. So, so sad." -- noloyalisti

And you''re the smartest person in the world, championing the only "right" cause and way of life for the planet? Since you''re so ******* smart, why don''t we have world peace and unity? Come on Mr. Everything...why haven''t you fixed the world yet? Please put it in terms us idiots can understand. For the life of me I can''t understand how a being so intelligent and more educated than everybody fails to save the world...

[kretos-2009]

So who cares? Iran has signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and has so far complied with the treaty''''s provisions. Israel has refused to sign the NPT, withholds all nuclear info, and now has a large, illegal nuclear arsenal. Israel, not Iran, is the threat to stability in the ME.

Posted by rwkincaide at 06:59 AM : May 27, 2008



i didnt know that ... thanks !!!