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Iran Secretly Purchased Centrifuge Components During 1980s, Iranian Official Says Iranian Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Ali Akbar Salehi said yesterday that his country clandestinely purchased uranium enrichment equipment during the 1980s, according to the Beirut Daily Star (see GSN, Sept. 2). The IAEA has said that environmental samples taken near an Iranian nuclear facility in Natanz revealed traces of enriched uranium. Iran has claimed that some of the components it has purchased for its centrifuge program were previously contaminated with enriched uranium. During the Iran-Iraq war, which lasted from 1980 to 1988, Iran purchased centrifuge components on the international black market, Salehi said. “This stuff was imported in 1985, more than a decade and a half ago,” Salehi said. “We have declared to the IAEA that we have bought these things through intermediaries,” he said. While the IAEA has called on Iran to provide information on where the components were purchased and to explain why they might have been contaminated with enriched uranium, Tehran has refused to do so, according to Salehi. Salehi refused to directly answer whether the centrifuge components, which he said were intended only as prototypes, were purchased in Europe. “All these centrifuges have a European basis for design, but that doesn’t mean all of the places that manufactured these parts are European countries,” Salehi said. The IAEA Board of Governors is scheduled to meet next week to discuss two reports on Iranian nuclear activities, according to the Star. Salehi said that the United States would not be able to persuade the board, however, to conclude that Iran has not complied with its agency safeguards agreement. “I don’t think that such a scheme will fly,” Salehi said in an interview with Reuters. “I think the U.S. should be more wise so as not to put itself in an embarrassing position,” he said. Diplomats in Vienna have said that a majority of the 35-member Board of Governors opposes reporting Iran to the Security Council at this time (Daily Star, Sept. 3). Additional Protocol Debate Meanwhile, officials in Tehran have said more time is needed to increase domestic support for signing an Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement, which would allow the agency to conduct more intrusive monitoring of Iranian nuclear facilities. “We are trying to win the trust of those who have real concerns, but we will not give in to the political uproar,” Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Monday. Iran does not view the impending IAEA Board of Governors meeting, scheduled to begin Monday, as a deadline for a decision on signing the protocol, according to Agence France-Presse. “No deadline has been set. The Islamic republic will decide in accordance with its national interests,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 3). IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei called on Iran yesterday to sign the protocol, and suggested that Tehran has already made a decision to do so. “I hope they will sign it very soon,” ElBaradei said during a press conference in Berlin after meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. “They told me last week they have taken the decision to conclude a protocol,” ElBaradei said. While Iran is making a final decision to officially sign the protocol, it should act as if it had already done so, ElBaradei said. “I would also hope that Iran, until they sign and ratify the protocol, acts as if the protocol is in force,” ElBaradei said. “The more transparency we see in Iran, the more confidence we can create that the (nuclear energy) program is dedicated for peaceful purposes,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Jordan Times, Sept. 3).
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