23 May 2007
New Report Casts More Doubt on Iran's Claims of Peaceful Program
U.S. ambassadors say Iran continues to be at odds with the world
Washington -- The most recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran’s nuclear activities fuels doubts over Iran’s claims that the program is peaceful and shows the country’s leaders continue to refuse to cooperate with the international community, the U.S. ambassador to the agency said.
In a May 23 statement issued in Vienna, Austria, Ambassador Gregory Schulte, the U.S. permanent representative to the U.N. Office in Vienna and the IAEA, said the United States is concerned that the IAEA reports its level of knowledge of Iran’s nuclear activities “has deteriorated because of Iran’s refusal to cooperate.”
Citing IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei’s remarks in the report, Schulte said that unless Iran addresses “long outstanding verification issues” and implements the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and required transparency measures, the agency cannot provide assurances that its program is exclusively peaceful in nature.
“How can the world believe Iran’s claims that its pursuits are peaceful, if Iran’s leaders increasingly withhold information and cooperation from the world’s nuclear watchdog?” Schulte asked.
Besides its ongoing refusal to suspend uranium enrichment activities as called for under U.N. Security Council resolutions, Iran also has refused to provide the IAEA with key information on subjects such as its purchases from former Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan’s illicit nuclear technology network, including access to a 15-page document obtained through the network related to the fabrication of nuclear weapons components, Schulte said.
More than four years after the international community learned of Iran’s secret nuclear program, the country’s leaders “are continuing down a path that puts them increasingly at odds with the international community,” he said.
In New York, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said the report clearly shows Iran’s failure to comply with Security Council resolutions and that Iran’s “protestation of peaceful intent is not credible” given its failure to suspend enrichment activities.
“We will look at the report closely both here and in Washington and look forward to working with the council members to take appropriate action with the aim of increasing the incentives on Iran to cooperate by increasing the pressure on the government of Iran,” Khalilzad told reporters.
“The pressures so far have not produced the result we all have been hoping for and the time has come to take a look at additional pressure to ratchet up the pressure to bring about a change in Iranian calculation,” he said.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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