Iran should clarify outstanding nuclear issues: IAEA

Nov 18, 2011 |

IANS

Tags:

Iran should clarify outstanding issues concerning some aspects of the country's nuclear programme suspected of involving nuclear weapon-related technologies, said Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"I ask Iran to engage substantively with the Agency (IAEA) without delay and provide the requested clarifications regarding possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme," Xinhua quoted Amano as stating in his introductory statement during a meeting of the IAEA board of governors on Thursday.

The IAEA chief said he had written to Iran's vice-president and chief of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Fereidoun Abbasi, proposing to send a high-level team to the country to clarify the issues outlined in IAEA's recent report on the Iranian nuclear issue.

Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a "nuclear explosive device", Amano said in the restricted report circulated to the board earlier this month.

Amano also said that throughout the past three years, the IAEA has obtained "additional information which gives us a fuller picture of Iran's nuclear programme and increase our concerns about possible military dimensions".

Although Amano's report suggested that some suspected nuclear activities "may still (be) ongoing", the paper stopped short of reaching a clear-cut conclusion on whether Iran was attempting to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has rejected the allegation in the report, accusing the US of using the IAEA as a tool to pressure Iran over its "peaceful" nuclear programme.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/107873" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-4b64e68e05648f8401ff7a88e6abb0b9" value="form-4b64e68e05648f8401ff7a88e6abb0b9" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80555123" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>