VIENNA, 2 September 2004 — Iran has said it will resume large-scale production of the feed material for enriching uranium, a process that can lead to making nuclear weapons, the UN atomic agency said yesterday. This appears to mark a further step away from Iran’s commitments to suspend as a confidence-building measure the enrichment process that is crucial to making what can be the explosive core of an atomic bomb.
The news came in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency ahead of an IAEA meeting in Vienna later this month to review the agency’s investigation into US charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
In what appeared to be a boost for Iran, the report said it was “plausible” that Iran was telling the truth in claiming uranium contamination found by IAEA inspectors had come from imported equipment and not because Tehran was making material for an atomic bomb.
“It appears plausible” that contamination by highly enriched uranium at two sites in Iran “may not have resulted from the enrichment of uranium at those locations,” the IAEA said in the confidential report obtained by AFP. A senior diplomat close to the IAEA said “one explanation is the contamination of components as Iran has claimed.”
But he said: “There are other explanations that the IAEA is also looking into.” He did not elaborate but one possibility was apparently that Iran may have enriched uranium at other sites. The report also said that the IAEA’s research into Iran’s laser enrichment and uranium conversion activities had confirmed Tehran’s reporting on these issues, and that these activities would now only be subject to routine monitoring.
In Tehran, the Iranian government said the report was a positive step toward clearing up the country’s file and demonstrating the peaceful character of the program. But the report made clear that while Iran has helped the IAEA clarify certain key issues, the investigation would continue, at least until a board meeting scheduled for November, with the United States lobbying for Iran to be taken before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
The report said a key unresolved issue was why Iran had done no work on sophisticated P2 centrifuges for seven years after acquiring design drawings for the machines in 1995. “The reasons given by Iran for the apparent gap between 1995 and 2002 do not provide sufficient assurance that there were no related activities carried out during that period,” the report said.
Meanwhile, a top Iranian dissident demanded trial by jury yesterday, refusing to be tried by one hard-line judge on charges including “acting against state security”. Ebrahim Yazdi, head of the Freedom Movement of Iran which advocates the separation of religion and state, is due in court this month where he must answer several other charges including insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “It is impossible to expect justice to be administered at a court where the judge, prosecutor and interrogator are the same person,” Yazdi said.
