UN atomic watchdog gives Iran until 31 October to provide full nuclear details

The United Nations atomic watchdog agency today gave Iran a 31 October deadline to provide accelerated cooperation and grant unrestricted access, including environmental sampling, in order to corroborate Tehran's renunciation of nuclear weapons and its compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"More than one year after initial IAEA inquiries to Iran about undeclared activities, Iran has still not enabled the IAEA to provide assurances required by members states that all nuclear material in Iran is declared and submitted to agency safeguards and that there are no undeclared nuclear activities," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors in Vienna said in a resolution expressing "grave concern."

The IAEA first raised concerns publicly about Iran's nuclear programme in June when it said that the country had failed to report certain nuclear material and activities as required by the NPT, of which it is a signatory.

The resolution noted with concern that environmental sampling at Natanz had revealed the presence of two types of highly enriched uranium and that IAEA inspectors found considerable modifications to the premises of the Kalaye Electric Company prior to inspections that may have an impact on the accuracy of environmental sampling.

The Board also voiced concern that some of Iran's statements had undergone significant and material changes and that despite an IAEA plea in June not to introduce nuclear material into its pilot centrifuge enrichment cascade Iran had still done so. The text did not say what would happen if Tehran failed to comply with the October deadline.

Recalling recent Iranian statements recommitting the country to full compliance with NPT and IAEA safeguards and renouncing interest in nuclear weapons, the resolution called on Tehran to "provide accelerated cooperation and full transparency" and to ensure there are "no further failures to report material, facilities and activities that Iran is obliged to report pursuant to its safeguard agreement."

It stressed the need for effective safeguards to prevent the use of nuclear material for prohibited purposes, underlined the "vital importance" of effective safeguards for facilitating cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and called on Iran to suspend all further uranium enrichment-related activities, including further introduction of nuclear material into Natanz.

The text also urged Iran to suspend, "as a confidence-building measure," any reprocessing activities pending provision by IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei of assurances required by Member States and application of an additional protocol that would allow enhanced, unannounced and on-the-spot inspections - which it called on Iran to sign, ratify and fully implement "promptly and unconditionally."

Other measures demanded by the end of October include a full declaration of all imported material, especially equipment that Iran said had been contaminated with highly enriched uranium particles before its was imported, and an accounting for the conclusion by IAEA experts that Tehran must have conducted process testing on gas centrifuges to develop its enrichment technology to its current extent.