Iran working on uranium enrichment: IAEA

By Mark Heinrich and Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran is forging ahead with a nuclear
fuel enrichment program in defiance of world pressure and is
stonewalling U.N. probes spurred by fears it secretly wants
atomic weapons, a U.N. watchdog report said on Monday.

The report by International Atomic Energy Agency director
Mohamed ElBaradei was circulated to IAEA board members before
they meet on March 6 to discuss it. The report will be
forwarded to the U.N. Security Council, which can impose
sanctions.

“It is regrettable and a matter of concern that the
uncertainties related to the scope and nature of Iran’s nuclear
program have not been clarified after three years of intensive
agency verification,” said the report, obtained by Reuters.

It said Iran had begun testing a cascade of 20 centrifuges
at its Natanz pilot uranium-enrichment plant, pressing ahead
with efforts to purify nuclear fuel.

Iran had also begun substantial renovations of Natanz’s
system handling UF6 gas, which is converted by centrifuges into
enriched atomic fuel. It said the cascade of 20 centrifuge
machines began to undergo vacuum testing on February 22.

The report came as the West reacted with deep skepticism to
a tentative Russia-Iran deal on uranium enrichment intended to
help resolve the dispute.

The head of Iran’s nuclear program said on Sunday that
Tehran had reached a “basic” agreement with Moscow on a
proposed joint venture to enrich uranium in Russia. But Russian
officials were afterwards reported as saying Iran had so far
made no commitment to renounce home-grown nuclear enrichment,
as demanded by Russia and the major Western powers.

France and Germany said the outline deal represented no
significant progress and the United States also expressed
reservations.

ElBaradei’s report said Iran had also produced 85 metric
tonnes of UF6 gas at its uranium-conversion facility in Isfahan
since September 2005, which would be enough for several atomic
bombs once Iran masters full-scale enrichment technology.

It said, however, that investigations has not uncovered any
hard evidence that any nuclear materials had been diverted into
bomb-making.

“TRANSPARENCY IS ESSENTIAL”

A February 4 IAEA board resolution reporting Iran to the
Security Council over concerns it may be secretly seeking
atomic bombs had demanded Tehran stop impeding agency
inquiries.

“To clarify these uncertainties, Iran’s full transparency
is still essential,” ElBaradei’s report said.

“Without full transparency that extends beyond the formal
legal requirements of the (IAEA) safeguards agreement … the
agency’s ability to reconstruct the history of Iran’s past
program and verify the correctness and completeness of the
statements made by Iran, particularly with regard to its
centrifuge (nuclear fuel) enrichment program, will be limited,
and questions about the past and current direction of Iran’s
nuclear program will continue to be raised,” it said.

Officials close to the IAEA probes said Iran had done very
little to heed the IAEA board apart from providing slightly
more, but inconclusive, information about alleged
civilian-military links in nuclear work and about equipment
connected to a military-run installation razed by Iran before
inspectors could reach it.

“We are not yet at the point to be able to conclude that
this is a (peaceful nuclear program),” said a senior official
close to the IAEA investigations.

Another official close to the inquiry said: “Iran is still
inching forward and, coupled with the resumption of uranium
enrichment work, it makes the whole atmosphere much more
negative.”

The report said environmental samples taken at the Parchin
military installation had found no traces of nuclear materials.

Parchin is a facility where the West suspected Iran was
secretly working on nuclear weapons technology.