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 A confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report obtained
by Reuters acknowledged that a long-running IAEA investigation into
suspected nuclear arms research by Tehran was making little headway,
given Tehran's lack of cooperation.
But Friday's report to member states also said the IAEA had visited
an Iranian research and development (R&D) center for centrifuges on
Aug. 30. It gave no details or say where the site was. But such
access could be crucial to helping the IAEA determine how far along
Iran may be in developing more modern models of the finely
calibrated machines used to refine uranium.
Iran's efforts to replace the breakdown-prone, 1970s vintage IR-1
centrifuge it is now operating at its Natanz and Fordow enrichment
plants are closely watched by the West since - if they are
successful - more efficient equipment could enable it to faster
amass material that could be used for atomic bombs.
Iran says it is refining uranium to fuel a planned network of
nuclear power plants. If enriched to a high concentration of the
fissile U-235 isotope, uranium can also be turned into the explosive
core of an atomic bomb.
"It is of importance to see the R&D to understand the full scope and
status of the program," former IAEA chief inspector Olli Heinonen,
now at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and
International Affairs, said in an e-mail last week.
Apart from a R&D centrifuge plant at Natanz to which the IAEA
already has regular access, Iran has a facility called Kalaye
Electric in Tehran which the U.N. agency has seldom visited.
Heinonen said R&D work is also done at other locations.
It was not clear when the IAEA last was able to examine an R&D site
but such visits are believed to be rare. One was made in 2011 and
another in 2008, though it is not publicly known whether they were
to Kalaye or some other location.
Iran denies allegations its enrichment program is part of a covert
bid to develop the capability to make nuclear weapons, but Western
states have imposed economic sanctions on the major oil-producer to
make it scale back its atomic activities.
Friday's IAEA report, which has not yet been made public, said that
Iran missed an Aug. 25 deadline to address suspicions about
activities in the past that could be relevant for any attempt to
assemble nuclear bombs.
It said Iran had implemented just three of five nuclear transparency
steps that it had agreed to carry out by last month's target date.
The two measures it had failed to implement concerned providing
information about alleged research that is part of the IAEA's
long-running investigation into what it calls the "possible military
dimensions" of Iran's nuclear program.
The IAEA report's findings "suggest that Iran is not yet prepared to
seriously discuss and explain to the IAEA the past and possibly
ongoing military dimensions of its nuclear program," the Institute
for Science and International Security (ISIS), a prominent U.S.
think-tank, said in an analysis.
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SOME NUCLEAR TRANSPARENCY
Western officials say Iran must address the IAEA's concerns if there
is to be any chance of success in parallel diplomatic negotiations
aimed at curbing the country's nuclear work in exchange for a
gradual removal of sanctions imposed on Tehran.
Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and
China failed to meet a self-imposed July deadline for reaching a
comprehensive deal because of wide differences over the permissible
size of Iran's enrichment program.
They now face a new deadline of Nov. 24, with talks between the
seven states due to resume in New York later this month.
A long-term deal would reduce the risk of a wider Middle East war:
Israel has threatened military action against Iran if it deems
diplomacy to be futile in reining in its arch-enemy.
While the big powers' diplomacy is focused on limiting Iran's future
production of enriched uranium, the IAEA has for years been
investigating suspected bomb research by the country.
Although this inquiry appears to have stalled for now, the IAEA
report showed some movement towards more transparency in other
aspects of the Iranian nuclear program.
The three steps that Iran did implement under a cooperation pact
reached with the IAEA last November - two of them after the Aug. 25
deadline - included granting access to the R&D site, as well as to
centrifuge assembly workshops and storage facilities.
Iran has since late last year also allowed U.N. inspectors to go to
two uranium mines and some other nuclear-linked sites.
"Iran's engagement with the agency, including the provision of
information, and the agency's ongoing analysis are helping the
agency to gain a better understanding of Iran's nuclear program,"
the IAEA's latest quarterly report on Iran said.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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