VIENNA, 20 June 2003 — The UN nuclear watchdog reprimanded Iran yesterday for failing to comply with its nuclear safeguards obligations and called on Tehran to unconditionally accept stricter inspections by the agency. The statement by the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded debates on an IAEA report on Iran’s failure to comply with its safeguards agreement — aimed at preventing the use of civilian nuclear resources to make atomic weapons.
“The board shared the concern expressed by (IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei) in his report at the number of Iran’s past failures to report material, facilities and activities as required by its safeguards obligations,” the board said. The board called on Iran to “continue to be transparent” and to accept without delay or conditions more intrusive, short-notice inspections to dispel suspicions that Iran is using its nuclear power program to secretly develop atomic weapons.
“The statement by the board was a reprimand, not a condemnation,” a diplomat told Reuters. “But it was more than I expected. It’s not a bad result.” The IAEA report said Iran had bought 1.8 tons of uranium in 1991 and had started building uranium enrichment plants without informing the agency, although it also said Tehran was taking steps to correct the situation.
The United States had been pushing the IAEA board to condemn Iran’s failures and warn Tehran in the clearest possible terms that the international community would never allow Iran to build nuclear weapons. “The international community must come together to make it very clear to Iran that we will not tolerate construction of a nuclear weapon,” US President George W. Bush said before the statement was issued.
Tehran has made it clear it will only sign the protocol if a ban on imports of peaceful Western nuclear technology is lifted. “We are happy that the board did not go with the pressure to come up with a resolution,” Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Salehi, told reporters after the session.
