Iran slows atom fuel drive, more cooperative: IAEA
Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:17pm EDT
1:17pm EDT
By Mark Heinrich
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has slowed its nuclear expansion and met some demands for better monitoring but allegations of covert atom bomb research look credible and Tehran must address them, the U.N atomic watchdog said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency report will form the basis for six-power talks on September 2 to look into harsher U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic over a uranium enrichment campaign the West fears is a stealthy quest for nuclear weapons.
New Iranian gestures of cooperation with IAEA inspectors could make it harder for the United States and big European allies to persuade Russia and China, major trade partners of Tehran, to agree on steps to squeeze its lifeblood oil sector.
But a Western diplomat said a summary, included in the report, of an IAEA probe blocked by Iran into alleged military dimensions to its nuclear program was unusually pointed and would be seized on by advocates of tougher sanctions.
Britain said it and other states continued to have "serious concerns" about Iran and Syria's nuclear programs.
The IAEA report said Iran was enriching uranium with about 300 fewer centrifuges than the almost 5,000 operating at the time of the last IAEA report. It did not say why, but a senior informed diplomat told Reuters earlier a number of machines had been taken down for maintenance or repairs.
But the confidential report, obtained by Reuters, said Iran had raised the number of installed, though not all enriching, machines by some 1,000 to 8,308.
This would allow the Islamic Republic to resume a major expansion of enrichment if it chose, barring technical problems, U.N. officials familiar with the report said.
Officials said they could not rule in or out the possibility that Iran's apparent nuclear slowdown was connected with unrest over alleged fraud in the presidential election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power in June.
The West suspects Iran is pursuing the means to produce atomic bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear fuel program.
Iran says it wants only electricity from nuclear power and has again rejected U.N. demands for a halt despite new fissures in its leadership over the unrest. It has also stymied an IAEA probe into alleged covert nuclear weapons research.
Iran's reported stockpile of low-enriched uranium had increased to 1,508 kg, almost 200 more than in May. Nuclear analysts said the production rate, around 50 percent capacity, appeared the same, albeit with fewer centrifuges on stream.
CAMERA SURVEILLANCE
A relative moderate advocating nuclear dialogue with big powers took charge of the Iranian nuclear energy agency in July.
The accord on better camera surveillance and data collection at Natanz came after the IAEA complained that Iran's vast expansion of centrifuge operations since 2008, without corresponding monitoring upgrades to keep pace, left them unable to verify nothing was being diverted for military purposes. Continued...
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