Iran clarifies bomb-grade uranium traces to IAEA
VIENNA (Reuters) - A pending U.N. watchdog report will say Iran has resolved questions about traces of bomb-grade uranium found at atomic research sites, moving an inquiry into Tehran's nuclear past towards completion, diplomats said.
But they said it appeared Iran would not be forthcoming enough to settle one remaining weighty issue -- alleged links between uranium processing, high explosives tests and missile design -- in time for the report, due between February 20 and 22.
Big powers welcome the watchdog's progress in uncovering Iran's past covert work. But they worry more about the present -- Tehran testing advanced centrifuges that would allow it to enrich uranium faster and acquire the means to build atom bombs.
They have drafted wider U.N. sanctions against Iran, citing its curbs on inspections hampering efforts to verify its nuclear work has no military dimensions, and its continued defiance of U.N. Security Council orders to suspend the work to win trust.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said he has made "good progress" in resolving outstanding issues. Security Council members are expected to scrutinize the details in his report before finalizing the new sanctions text.
Diplomats familiar with IAEA investigations said Iran had clarified how and why particles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) turned up in inspections at Tehran's technical university and physics research centre.
They declined to give details of their reasoning but some analysts believe the report could say that the highly enriched uranium came from outside the country rather than from Iranian attempts to build a bomb.
In a separate earlier case, the IAEA accepted Iranian statements that HEU traces detected in environmental sampling by inspectors came with equipment obtained from a Pakistani-led nuclear smuggling network broken up a few years ago.
"But the important issue is not so much what Iran did in the past but what it's doing now and might do in future," Mark Fitzpatrick, chief non-proliferation expert at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said.
"To be able to detect future clandestine enrichment, the IAEA needs unrestricted access across the country and to be able to conduct widespread environmental sampling," he told Reuters.
WEAPONISATION FEARS
Diplomats said Iran had not lived up to a January vow to cooperate enough for the IAEA to end the inquiry in February by addressing fears it tried to "weaponize" nuclear materials.
U.S. intelligence given to inspectors in 2005 pointed to Iranian work on uranium processing, explosives tests and research on a missile warhead design under military supervision, a connection Iran has rejected as propaganda.
A senior IAEA official said on Tuesday inspectors needed more time to share the findings with Iran and gets its response.
A U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) said in December that Iran shelved a clandestine weapons program in 2003. Continued...
