TEHRAN, 5 April 2004 — Iran, under renewed pressure to prove it is not seeking an atomic bomb, said yesterday it had no clandestine nuclear sites hidden from UN inspectors. A group of Western diplomats who follow the UN nuclear watchdog said recent intelligence provoked suspicion Tehran had not stopped enriching uranium but moved enrichment activities to smaller sites out of the United Nations’ view.
“There is no nuclear center in Iran which we have hidden from inspectors,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference.
Iran promised Britain, France and Germany last October it would suspend uranium enrichment and accept snap atomic checks. If enriched to a low level, uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power stations. But if enriched further, to weapons-grade, it can be deployed in warheads.
The United States accuses Tehran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program but Iran insists its ambitions are confined to fuelling power stations to generate electricity.
Last month, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), passed a resolution deploring Iran’s failure to declare potentially arms-related activities.
Iran’s omissions of key atomic technology from an October resolution included undeclared research on advanced “P2” centrifuges that can make bomb-grade uranium. IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei is due to arrive in Tehran on Tuesday for talks with senior Iranian officials.
Iran initially blocked IAEA inspectors after last month’s toughly-worded UN resolution but Asefi said a further team of inspectors would arrive in Iran in two weeks.
An internal IAEA report obtained by Reuters said some inspections in Iran had been “managed” by the Iranians, who refused to let inspectors take pictures with UN cameras or use their own electronic devices. Asefi denied this intrusion.
Britain, France and Germany recently criticized Iran’s decision to start up a uranium conversion plant in the central city of Isfahan.
This plant is designed to produce uranium hexafluoride, the gas pumped into centrifuges to produce enriched uranium.
Although not strictly an enrichment activity, the trio said the move sent the wrong signal. Washington hawks are looking to haul Iran before the UN Security Council and impose sanctions for violations of its nuclear commitments.
Asefi also denied a Reuters report quoting diplomats who said the United Nations had found traces of bomb-grade uranium at sites in Iran other than the two already named.
“Reuters is making false, baseless and unfounded propaganda,” he told reporters.
A Western diplomat told Reuters on Friday that UN inspectors had found highly enriched uranium in sites other than the Natanz enrichment center and a workshop of the Kalaye Electric Company. Iran insists traces of highly-enriched uranium on nuclear components originate from contamination when parts were bought from abroad.
