U.S.: IAEA report shows Iran still refusing to meet nuke obligations

The headline below could have been (and was) used many times in the past, and regrettably, it probably will appear again and again, until it is replaced by a headline announcing that Iran has tested a nuclear weapon - or used it. Even the United States State Department could have figured out by now that there is no chance whatever that Iran will abandon its nuclear development program unless it is forced to do so, and that Iran, which has built at least three different concealed nuclear facilities that have been discovered, and undoubtedly built more, and has tested an implosion device as well, is almost certainly developing a nuclear weapon.

 

U.S.: IAEA report shows Iran still refusing to meet nuke obligations
By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies

 

A United Nations nuclear watchdog report proves that Iran is still not meeting its obligations to the international community over its nuclear program, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said on Monday.

 

"[The] IAEA's latest report on Iran underscores that Iran still refuses to comply fully with its international nuclear obligations," he said.

 

A copy of the report obtained by Reuters on Monday noted that Iran's belated revelation of a second uranium enrichment site raised concern about possible further secret nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic.
 

 

Kelly further said that Iran's failure to disclose the Qom enrichment facility to the International Atomic Energy Agency was the most recent example of continued noncompliance.

 

"Now is the time for Iran to signal that it wants to be a responsible member of the international community," he added. "We will continue to press Iran in ways consistent with the dual-track approach to meet its international nuclear obligations."

 

The report further said Iran had told the IAEA that it had begun building the bunkered site near Qom in 2007, but the IAEA had evidence the project began in 2002, paused in 2004 and resumed in 2006. Iran reported the site's existence to the IAEA in September.

 

IAEA inspectors also found that Iran had reduced since August the number of centrifuges enriching Uranium at its main Natanz site by 650 to 3,936, while slightly raising the total number of machines installed to 8,692. Western diplomats and analysts said the slowdown was probably caused by technical glitches.

 

A senior official, meanwhile, said Monday that the nuclear agency believes Iran plans to start enriching uranium at the previously secret facility in 2011.

 

The official said the IAEA also believes that the site near Qom will be able to house 3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges.

 

A senior international official familiar with a new IAEA report said Monday that number could allow Iran to enrich enough material to be able to arm one nuclear warhead a year. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the restricted nature of the information.

 

Also Monday, Russia said it would not start a nuclear reactor at Iran's Bushehr atomic power station by the end of the year as planned, citing technical reasons.
"The launch will not happen by the end of the year," Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told reporters. Russia's nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko said in February that the launch was scheduled for 2009.

 

The Bushehr plant has been delayed frequently. Russia last year completed delivery of nuclear fuel to the station under a contract estimated to be worth about one billion euros.

 

The Russian announcement prompted an Iranian official to question whether Russia would ever complete its part of the work.

 

"The Russians have never told us the truth and just followed their own interests - the Bushehr power plant will never be completed by Russia," Mahmoud Ahmadi-Biqash, spokesman of the parliamentary foreign policy and security commission, said.

 

"The Russians are playing with Iran over Bushehr for twenty years and even if we waited another 200 years, this power plant would not get ready," he told the ISNA news agency.