Source: Agence France Presse
VIENNA – The United States insisted on Iran suspending uranium enrichment in order to win international confidence, downplaying a UN report Thursday that Tehran is answering questions about its nuclear work.
US ambassador Gregory Schulte said the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency "would welcome resolution of troubling questions about Iran’s nuclear activities but thus far for the most part Iran has only made promises."
"Even if Iran comes clean on the past, its nuclear file cannot be closed until the agency has full insight into the present," Schulte told AFP.
He said "Iran’s nuclear file will remain open as long as Iran refuses to meet its international obligation to suspend activities of international concern."
The United States has accused Iran of pretending to cooperate with the IAEA in order to avoid further UN sanctions, and has stressed that Tehran is still defying UN Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment, which makes fuel for civilian reactors but also atom bomb material.
Schulte said that since the IAEA’s last report in May on Iran, the Islamic Republic "has increased by 50 percent the number of (centrifuge) cascades running with uranium hexafluoride in the once secret underground bunkers in Natanz" to enrich uranium.
"This is of serious concern to the IAEA board and the UN Security Council," Schulte said.
"If Iran’s leaders truly want to close the nuclear file they would cooperate fully and unconditionally with the IAEA and suspend activiites that are not necessary for civil purposes but are necessary to build bombs," the US ambassador said.
Iran’s decision to answer key questions about its nuclear programme is "a significant step forward," the IAEA said Thursday, referring to an agreement under which Iran has agreed to a timetable for clearing up outstanding issues.
But the IAEA added that "once Iran’s past nuclear programme has been clarified, Iran would need to continue to build confidence about the scope and nature of its present and future nuclear programme."
The report by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said however that Iran continues to defy two UN Security Council resolutions to cease enriching uranium.
The IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors will review the report at a meeting beginning September 10.
