VIENNA: Iran has stymied a UN inquiry into whether it covertly researched how to make an atom bomb while steadily expanding uranium enrichment in defiance of international demands, a nuclear watchdog report said yesterday. Iran blamed the International Atomic Energy Agency for the impasse. A senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named, called on the Vienna-based IAEA to change its approach and work in a “legal and logical” manner.
The White House called on Iran to stop enriching uranium or face the possibility of more UN sanctions adding to relatively modest punitive measures the country has shrugged off.
A confidential report by the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear agency, said Iran had raised the number of centrifuges enriching uranium to 3,820, compared with 3,300 in May, with over 2,000 more being installed. “We have arrived at a gridlock,” said a senior UN official familiar with the latest report, which urged Iran to take the intelligence allegations seriously to defuse suspicions its nuclear work is not entirely peaceful. But Iran seemed some way from refining enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon, if it chose, the report indicated.
Iran had stockpiled 480 kg of low-enriched uranium so far. It would need 1,700 kg to convert into high-enriched uranium (HEU) for fueling an atom bomb, said UN officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“That would be a significant quantity, one unit of HEU, and would take of the order of two years,” said one official.
In its last report in May, the IAEA said Iran appeared to be withholding information needed to explain intelligence that it had linked projects to process uranium, test high explosives and modify a missile cone in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.
IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei called on Iran then for “full disclosure,” namely, going beyond flat denials without providing access to sites, documentation or relevant officials for interviews to substantiate their stance.
