Global Security Newswire

Iran has effectively blocked international attempts to clarify whether the Middle Eastern state's nuclear program involves weapons development, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in a report today (see GSN, Sept. 12). The report states that Tehran has not submitted requested details on alleged documents that indicate Iran has conducted research with bearing on a possible nuclear weapons program. 

Iran's alleged studies -- according to documents provided electronically by Western nations earlier this year --  include precision high-explosives testing and research into modifying its Shahab 3 missile to accommodate a nuclear warhead.

"Unless Iran undertakes … to resolve substantively the outstanding issues, the agency will not be in a position to progress in its verification of the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran," the report says, adding that only when Tehran provides the requested information can "doubts … about the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program be dispelled."

Since its previous report (see GSN, May 27), the U.N. nuclear watchdog has questioned Iranian claims that the U.S.-provided documents were forgeries.

In two meetings last month, IAEA officials "emphasized that the documentation was sufficiently comprehensive and detailed that it needed to be taken seriously, particularly in light of the fact that, as acknowledged by Iran, some of the information contained in it was factually accurate," according to the report.

The agency asked Iran to distinguish between accurate and forged details in the documents, recommending that Tehran provide access to additional details and personnel to help verify its assertions.

"Unfortunately, Iran has not yet provided the requested information, or access to the requested documentation, locations or individuals," the report states (Diane Barnes, Global Security Newswire, Sept. 15).

Two diplomats said that Iran last month barred IAEA officials from visiting sites suspected to be working on missile modification, Reuters reported (Mark Heinrich, Reuters I, Sept. 12).

The report adds that Tehran has provided no new information on an Iranian document describing how to shape uranium metal into hemispheres, a key step in producing nuclear weapon cores.  Iran maintains it had not requested the document, which it said came with blueprints for a Pakistani uranium enrichment centrifuge received through a nuclear smuggling ring.

Iran has placed more than 13,000 pounds of uranium hexafluoride into its enrichment centrifuges since Dec. 12, 2007, the report states.  The United States and other Western powers have taken issue with Iran's uranium enrichment program because it could produce material for a nuclear bomb; Iran maintains it only wants to produce nuclear power plant fuel for civilian use.

Iran placed roughly 65 pounds of uranium hexafluoride in its experimental next-generation centrifuges between May 16 and Aug. 25, the report says (Diane Barnes, Global Security Newswire).

The report states that Iran has begun operating more than 500 new uranium enrichment centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility since May for a new total of 3,820 working machines, Reuters reported.  Iran is placing more than 2,000 additional centrifuges at the facility.

Iran had roughly 1,050 pounds of low-enriched uranium in storage as of last month.  It would require 33,000 pounds to produce enough highly enriched uranium to fuel a nuclear weapon, according to U.N. officials.

"That would be a significant quantity, one unit of HEU, and would take on the order of two years," an official said (Mark Heinrich, Reuters II, Sept. 15).

"Four thousand [centrifuges] is quite enough to produce highly enriched uranium for a small number of weapons or provide technical expertise and operational cover for a covert capability" if the machines ran at full capacity, a Western diplomat said.

However, another diplomat said the machines are "not operating all together but by batches and they are still rotating at quite a low speed, at maximum 20 percent capacity."

Some diplomats suggested Iran has reduced IAEA cooperation to the minimum amount required by its nuclear safeguards pact with the agency by prohibiting access to its military sites.

"They don't want visits to national defense sites," said a high-level diplomat familiar with the Iran nuclear probe.

Tehran fears that allowing such access would enable the United States and Israel to "get coordinates for future attacks and identify key personnel for targeting," the diplomat said.  "It's not just a simple tale of Iranian stonewalling.  But there's a stalemate.  The veracity of the alleged (bomb) studies cannot be proven conclusively" (Heinrich, Reuters I).

The United States today said that Iran's lack of nuclear transparency could lead to new economic penalties, Agence France-Presse reported.

"We urge Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities or face further implementation of the existing United Nations Security Council sanctions and the possibility of new sanctions," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

"This report shows once again that Iran is refusing to cooperate with the international community.  The Iranian regime's continued defiance only further isolates the Iranian people," he added (Agence France-Presse I/Google News, Sept. 15).

Iran cautioned the nuclear agency against issuing a harsh report in what it said would be a sign of complicity with U.S. demands.  Tehran added that it would require time "to analyze" the report before providing official comment, Reuters reported today.

"What we are expecting (from) the agency … (is) to conduct itself based on its own regulations and not to be affected by outside pressure, including U.S. pressure," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told reporters before the report's release.

"We are fully expecting the IAEA to remain independent again, to confine its activities to recognized international laws and regulations," he said, adding that Iran's cooperation "with the agency has to fall within the parameters of the regulations and also the safeguards and our agreements with the agency."

"We are always ready for the continuation of our cooperation within the confines of the modality for agreement," he said (Reuters III/International Herald Tribune, Sept. 15).

The nation said today it intends to maintain uranium enrichment, AFP reported.

"Stating that Iran did not obey the United Nations Security Council resolution asking it to halt uranium enrichment shows this reality -- that Iran found no logical and legal reasons for doing so," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran's ambassador to the U.N.  nuclear watchdog (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Sept. 15).

Meanwhile, the top foreign officials for Iran and Russia met Friday to discuss nuclear cooperation between their countries as well as Russia's recent military incursion in Georgia, AFP reported.

"We will consider agreements … which are developing well," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said before the meeting, likely referring to the Bushehr nuclear power plant now being built in Iran by a Russian contractor (Agence France-Presse III/Google News, Sept. 12).