Annie
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20040601/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_dc
UN Raises New Questions About Iran's Nuclear Plans
Tue Jun 1, 6:27 PM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a confidential report on Tuesday Iran had acknowledged importing parts for centrifuges capable of making bomb-grade uranium that it previously said were made in the country.
Washington accuses Iran of pursuing a nuclear arms program. Tehran denies this, saying its nuclear program is only for power generation.
"Iran has acknowledged that, contrary to...earlier statements, it had imported some magnets relevant to P2 centrifuges from Asian suppliers," said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, obtained by Reuters.
There were also indications Iran's interest in P2 centrifuges, which can produce bomb-grade uranium twice as fast as earlier P1 centrifuges, was more than a "research and development" on a small amount of centrifuges as it had told the IAEA, the report said.
According to the IAEA, Iran said a private Iranian company had made "enquiries" through a European intermediary for 4,000 magnets for P2 centrifuges, enough to equip 2,000 centrifuges. The machines cannot enrich uranium without these magnets.
BETTER PRICE
"The owner of the private company acknowledged that he had mentioned to the intermediary the possibility of future procurement of higher numbers of P2 centrifuge magnets beyond the 4,000," the report said, noting Iran said that a promise of future orders was made to get a better price.
The issue of the P2 centrifuges has been a key one in the IAEA probe into Iran's nuclear program since earlier this year.
Iran had left out its P2 research from an October declaration it said was the full story of its nuclear program, an omission IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei called a setback.
"On issue after issue, Iran's story doesn't seem to check out and raises continued questions about Tehran's commitment to full cooperation," Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director for non-proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said of the report.
A U.S. government official, who declined to be named, said: "The more the IAEA looks, the more they find and the more Iran says 'Oops, we need to amend our declaration'."
But ElBaradei, who authored the report, warned earlier it would be premature to say now it was clear Iran's program was not peaceful in nature.
"The jury is out on whether the program has been dedicated exclusively for peaceful purposes," ElBaradei said.
PRAISE FOR IRAN
The report praised Iran for "providing access to locations in response to agency requests, including workshops situated at military sites." But inspections were "delayed in some cases" due to discussion of terms of access to defense industry sites.
The United Nations (news - web sites) has been investigating Iran since an exiled Iranian opposition group reported in August 2002 that Tehran was hiding a massive uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and other sites from U.N. inspectors.
The report said highly enriched uranium (HEU), enriched to the point where it contains 36 percent uranium-235 -- the atom needed in high concentrations in a bomb, was found at a site never previously named by the IAEA, Farayand.
The IAEA had previously said it had found HEU at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and the Kalaye Electric Co.
Iran has said the traces of 36 percent HEU found at Farayand and Kalaye Electric Company came from Pakistan. But the IAEA report said the facts did not appear to support this.
"It is unlikely...that the agency will be able to conclude that the 36 percent...contamination was due to components originating from the state in question," the report said.
Several diplomats said the state in question was Pakistan. They also said the 36 percent HEU could have come from Russia. But another diplomat who follows IAEA issues said it could not be ruled out that it was domestically produced.
Tehran has always denied producing HEU at home.
The IAEA report said resolving the P2 and uranium contamination questions were of "key importance to the agency's ability to provide the international community with the required assurances about Iran's nuclear activities." (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20040601/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_dc
UN Raises New Questions About Iran's Nuclear Plans
Tue Jun 1, 6:27 PM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a confidential report on Tuesday Iran had acknowledged importing parts for centrifuges capable of making bomb-grade uranium that it previously said were made in the country.
Washington accuses Iran of pursuing a nuclear arms program. Tehran denies this, saying its nuclear program is only for power generation.
"Iran has acknowledged that, contrary to...earlier statements, it had imported some magnets relevant to P2 centrifuges from Asian suppliers," said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, obtained by Reuters.
There were also indications Iran's interest in P2 centrifuges, which can produce bomb-grade uranium twice as fast as earlier P1 centrifuges, was more than a "research and development" on a small amount of centrifuges as it had told the IAEA, the report said.
According to the IAEA, Iran said a private Iranian company had made "enquiries" through a European intermediary for 4,000 magnets for P2 centrifuges, enough to equip 2,000 centrifuges. The machines cannot enrich uranium without these magnets.
BETTER PRICE
"The owner of the private company acknowledged that he had mentioned to the intermediary the possibility of future procurement of higher numbers of P2 centrifuge magnets beyond the 4,000," the report said, noting Iran said that a promise of future orders was made to get a better price.
The issue of the P2 centrifuges has been a key one in the IAEA probe into Iran's nuclear program since earlier this year.
Iran had left out its P2 research from an October declaration it said was the full story of its nuclear program, an omission IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei called a setback.
"On issue after issue, Iran's story doesn't seem to check out and raises continued questions about Tehran's commitment to full cooperation," Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director for non-proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said of the report.
A U.S. government official, who declined to be named, said: "The more the IAEA looks, the more they find and the more Iran says 'Oops, we need to amend our declaration'."
But ElBaradei, who authored the report, warned earlier it would be premature to say now it was clear Iran's program was not peaceful in nature.
"The jury is out on whether the program has been dedicated exclusively for peaceful purposes," ElBaradei said.
PRAISE FOR IRAN
The report praised Iran for "providing access to locations in response to agency requests, including workshops situated at military sites." But inspections were "delayed in some cases" due to discussion of terms of access to defense industry sites.
The United Nations (news - web sites) has been investigating Iran since an exiled Iranian opposition group reported in August 2002 that Tehran was hiding a massive uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and other sites from U.N. inspectors.
The report said highly enriched uranium (HEU), enriched to the point where it contains 36 percent uranium-235 -- the atom needed in high concentrations in a bomb, was found at a site never previously named by the IAEA, Farayand.
The IAEA had previously said it had found HEU at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and the Kalaye Electric Co.
Iran has said the traces of 36 percent HEU found at Farayand and Kalaye Electric Company came from Pakistan. But the IAEA report said the facts did not appear to support this.
"It is unlikely...that the agency will be able to conclude that the 36 percent...contamination was due to components originating from the state in question," the report said.
Several diplomats said the state in question was Pakistan. They also said the 36 percent HEU could have come from Russia. But another diplomat who follows IAEA issues said it could not be ruled out that it was domestically produced.
Tehran has always denied producing HEU at home.
The IAEA report said resolving the P2 and uranium contamination questions were of "key importance to the agency's ability to provide the international community with the required assurances about Iran's nuclear activities." (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington)
