IRAN: Nuclear duel heats up over IAEA report

If the latest International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's nuclear program was meant to serve as a wake-up call and warning to Tehran to back away from its nuclear ambitions, it sure didn't seem to work very well.

The full IAEA report (136 KB PDF file) was distributed to the board of the United Nations nuclear inspection watchdog and promptly leaked Monday to reporters, and it was denounced by Iranian officials throughout the week.

The report contained tantalizing clues about the contents of a smuggled laptop computer allegedly containing evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program, which will be discussed this week in Vienna. 

Reaction to the report in Iran has been negative if not hostile. Even the relative liberals within Iran's circle of power have cried foul. The reformist newspaper Etemad Melli wrote in Thursday's editions that Iran shouldn't abide by IAEA suggestions that Iran hand over any document requested.

"This is not legally enforceable and no end can be imagined for it," it said.

Today, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini spent 15 minutes of his half-hour weekly press briefing to deliver a speech about the weak and strong points of the recent IAEA report.

He said:

The recent report shows largely that Iran has not had any non-peaceful nuclear acitivities. However under the pressure of one or two Western countries (U.S. and UK or France, likely), the report has provided some stuff for the pretext-seeking countries. We should bear in mind that not a single negative point has been documented in the report against Iran's peaceful nuclear activities, but those one or two countries are seeking a pretext.

The documents suggest Iran was working on missile designs, radioactive material experiments and explosives testing consistent with a nuclear weapons program until at least 2003. Documents, the IAEA report said, "remain a matter of serious concern."

The IAEA admits that Western spy agencies have barred it from actually showing the documents to Iran, which Tehran says kind of makes it tough for them to respond to them. Iran has dismissed them as forgeries.

Iran's already suffered three rounds of relatively mild economic sanctions over its nuclear program. The U.N. Security Council is making noises like it's ready for number four. Iran has argued that the IAEA and not the Security Council should be dealing with its nuclear program. Now that the relatively harsh report is out, Iran is crying foul about the IAEA, as well.

Here's Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of two powerful clerical committees in Iran, at Friday prayers:

Though we have answered all their questions and IAEA admitted we have responded, they claim to have some more questions, which is an indication that is a new trap. If the IAEA continues the current policy, it will be discredited.

Ali Larijani, Iran's new speaker of parliament, began his post on Wednesday by denouncing the IAEA report before lawmakers.

— Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, left, chats with the chairman of the board of governors, Milenko Skoknic, prior to a meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna. Credit: AFP

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Comments

[aly]

at the end of the day the USA is a puppet of Israel and will do what Israel say and since Israel sees iran as a threat to them then well you bet the USA will back its daddy all through since it seems none tends to think with their heads and goes to show by the amount of bloodshed how people will go crazy just to get what they want even if it means producing appalling lies in documented reports to get their own way.

[Caliph]

Before IAEA can take all more than 30000 Nuclear Bombs and all other WMD from Moscos, London, Paris, Tel Aviv and else where they must stop any discussion Iran.

Above is the moral obligation of IAEA and if they have no moralty, they must be abolished as a failed Organization.

[Kudzu Fire]

in the end, I don't think Iran is really our problem. I think Iran is Israel's problem