Iran said it had been vindicated after the UN nuclear agency concluded that traces of highly enriched uranium found on centrifuge parts in Iran had entered the country on imported equipment and were not a result of Iranian enrichment activities.
The findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supported Iran's claims that the material entered the country together with centrifuge parts from Pakistan.
The discovery of traces of highly enriched uranium in Iran had been used as evidence by the US that Tehran was experimenting the production of highly enriched uranium, which is only used in nuclear weapons.
The traces were found on centrifuges at the uranium enrichment plant in the central Iranian city of Natanz and Kalaye Electric site, west of Tehran, two years ago and raised concerns about the motives behind Iran's nuclear activities.
The US claims Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to secretly develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charge, saying its nuclear program is designed only to generate electricity.
Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, on Tuesday said the findings prove Iran was right and the US was wrong.
"Accurate scientific investigation by the IAEA has proved that US accusations were unfounded," state-run television quoted Saeedi as saying on Tuesday.
Saeedi said the time had come for the West, including Europeans, to trust Iranian intentions.
"Given the fact that Iran has been cleared of the accusations and that its statements have been approved, there is no justification for Western countries not to trust Iran," he said.
Prominent political analyst Davoud Hermidas Bavand concurred: "The findings by IAEA mean future pressures on Iran over its nuclear program will be only politically motivated without any legal value."
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
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