VIENNA, 14 November 2003 — The UN nuclear watchdog rejected yesterday US charges that a key report on Iran drew the wrong conclusion by saying there is no evidence the country is trying to make atomic weapons.
The dispute comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is set to meet next week to consider the report on Iran’s nuclear program and decide whether Tehran is in compliance with the safeguards agreement of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“We stand by the report,” IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told AFP about the 29-page-document that the agency’s director-general Mohamed El-Baradei delivered to the 35-nation board of governors on Monday.
Gwozdecky refused to comment further, saying the report was “a classified document and will be considered at next week’s board meeting.”
The report accused Iran of covert nuclear activities over the past 20 years, including making plutonium and enriching uranium, but said there is as yet no evidence it is trying to build an atomic bomb.
John Bolton, US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said in Washington that the IAEA conclusions flew in the face of established facts. “After extensive documentation of Iran’s denials and deceptions over an 18-year period and a long litany of serious violations of Iran’s commitments to the IAEA, the report nonetheless concluded that ‘no evidence’ had been found of an Iranian nuclear weapons program,” he said.
Iran’s representative to the IAEA said there could be “unpredictable consequences” if the agency’s governing board declares Tehran in violation of the NPT. On Nov. 20, the IAEA Board of Governors meets to discuss the IAEA report.
“I hope we do not reach such a stage because then things could very easily get out of control,” Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, said.
