Fear of U.S. attack behind IAEA cooperation limit - Iran
By Mark HeinrichVIENNA (Reuters) - Iran's decision to stop giving early notice of nuclear development plans to the U.N. watchdog was prompted by fear the information would be used for a U.S. or Israeli attack, Tehran has told the monitoring agency.
In response, the International Atomic Energy Agency told Iran that its March 25 move to withhold details of any future nuclear activity violated a key part of its non-proliferation accords with the IAEA, and called on Tehran to reconsider.
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Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, briefs the media at Vienna's U.N. headquarters March 7, 2007. Iran's decision to stop giving early notice of nuclear development plans to the U.N. watchdog was prompted by fear the information would be used for a U.S. or Israeli attack, Tehran has told the monitoring agency.(REUTERS/Herwig Prammer) |
Iranian IAEA Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh, in a letter to IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei obtained by Reuters, said Tehran was forced to shield nuclear plans from what he called constant threats by the United States and Israel -- both of which have mooted last-resort military action against Iran.
Soltanieh also cited what he called improper leaks to Western powers of confidential data from IAEA inspections of its nuclear installations, and what he termed U.N. efforts to deny its "inalienable right" to peaceful nuclear energy.
"As long as such threats of military action persist, Iran has no option but to protect its security through all means possible, including protection of information which can facilitate openly stated and aggressive military objectives of the war mongers," he wrote.
"At this stage therefore, such dangerous dissemination of sensitive information will have to be curtailed through steps which limit their scope and availability," he added.
Western powers suspect Iran's ultimate goal is to be able to build atom bombs. Tehran says its nuclear fuel programme, still at research level but due to be ramped up to "industrial scale" enrichment of uranium, is meant only to generate electricity.
A letter replying to Soltanieh from IAEA external relations chief Vilmos Cserveny said Tehran's move departed from a 1992 IAEA measure providing for advance handover of nuclear design plans to enable an "effective implementation of safeguards".
"Iran's decision therefore is regrettable. I would urge your authorities to reconsider their decision," Cserveny wrote.
It was not clear whether this scale back of cooperation with the IAEA might warrant a special meeting of the its 35-nation Board of Governors to consider declaring Iran in non-compliance.
The board did so previously over Iran's concealment of sensitive enrichment research from the IAEA for 18 years until 2003 and stonewalling of subsequent agency investigations to determine whether the programme is wholly peaceful or not.
Diplomats say Iran's withholding of nuclear design information from the IAEA could effectively free it to build back-up uranium enrichment facilities in secret for use if the United States were to bomb its flagship Natanz enrichment plant.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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