The International Atomic Energy Agency has once again confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear energy program.
In an IAEA report issued on Friday, the agency reaffirmed that Iran’s nuclear program has never been diverted to nuclear weapons production, the Press TV correspondent in Vienna reported.
But the report still says Tehran must halt its uranium enrichment activities, as demanded by four United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, stated that the demand is politically motivated, saying, “When all nuclear activities are accounted for and there is no diversion to military purposes… then what is the justification for referring to an old obsolete request of suspension.”
The report also claimed that Iran has not been abiding by some of its obligations, an allegation Iran strongly rejects.
Soltanieh told Press TV that all nuclear activities in Iran are under the full-scope safeguards of the IAEA and that Tehran has been cooperating with the agency far beyond its legal obligations.
“The report is on the implementation of safeguards in Iran and therefore those parts referring to other things, like the Security Council or the Additional Protocol, are beyond the mandate of such a report,” the Iranian envoy said.
The report also maintains that Iran’s nuclear facilities have not been affected by the Stuxnet computer virus since the country’s production of low-enriched uranium is higher than it was last fall.
In July 2010, media reports claimed that Stuxnet had targeted industrial computers around the globe, with Iran being the main target of the attack. They said the Bushehr nuclear power plant was at the center of the cyber attack.
The document, prepared by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, is a prelude to the upcoming IAEA Board of Governors meeting, which opens on March 7.
On June 9, 2010, the UN ratified a US-engineered resolution imposing new sanctions on Iran over the allegations that Tehran is concealing a clandestine nuclear weapons program.
Tehran has vehemently rejected the allegations of diversion, saying it needs nuclear energy to meet its growing domestic demand for electricity and to provide fuel for the Tehran research reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer treatment.
Iran is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and thus has the right to enrich uranium to produce fuel.
80% of report confirms Iran’s cooperation with IAEA
Soltanieh also told the Mehr News Agency on Saturday that 80 percent of the report confirms that Iran is cooperating with the IAEA.
“For the 26th time, the IAEA confirmed that there is no diversion in Iran’s nuclear program,” he stated, adding that the good point about the IAEA report is that it is comprised of two parts.
“Over the past eight years… this is the first time that the format of the report of the IAEA director general has changed and the report is comprised of two parts. One part is devoted to Iran’s commitments under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and shows that Iran’s (nuclear) activities… are under the safeguards agreement,” he said.
“The second part contains the requirements stated by Amano based on the UN sanctions resolution, while we… have many times proved that the sanctions lack legal weight and must not be implemented,” Soltanieh added.
Soltanieh also stated that the report says Iran is not reprocessing plutonium, but the latest UN sanctions resolution requires Iran to halt the reprocessing of plutonium and this indicates that the UN sanctions resolution is contradictory.
