VIENNA – The UN nuclear watchdog fears Iran may be working now to develop a nuclear payload for a missile, the agency said in a confidential report yesterday obtained by Reuters.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report also confirmed Iran had produced its first, small batch of uranium enriched to a higher purity – 20 per cent – but said the Islamic Republic had failed to give inspectors the required advance notice.
Both developments will stoke western concerns that Iran is secretly bent on developing nuclear weapons capacity from the enrichment process. Tehran says the effort is meant only to yield electricity or radio-isotopes for agriculture or medicine.
The agency has been investigating for several years western intelligence reports indicating Iran has co-ordinated efforts to process uranium, test explosives at high altitude and revamp a ballistic missile cone in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.
In 2007 the United States issued an assessment saying Iran had halted such research in 2003 and probably not resumed it.
But its key western allies believe Iran continued the programme – and the IAEA report offered independent support for that perception for the first time.
“The information available to the agency is extensive ... broadly consistent and credible in terms of the technical detail, the time frame in which the activities were conducted and the people and organisations involved,” the report said. “Altogether this raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.”
It was unusually blunt language in the first IAEA report on Iran under new director general Yukiya Amano, who is seen as more inclined to confront Iran over its behaviour than was his predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei.
The report, to be considered at a March 1st-5t hmeeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation governing body, said it became harder to unearth relevant information as time passed, and it was therefore vital for Iran to co-operate with IAEA investigators “without further delay”.
Iran has dismissed the intelligence as fabrication but failed to provide substance to back this up. It has refused all contact with the agency on the issue for 18 months. Last week it announced a start to higher-scale enrichment, saying it was frustrated at the collapse of an IAEA-backed plan for big powers to provide it with fuel rods for nuclear medicine. – (Reuters)