Iran vowed to continue enriching uranium despite a wrist slap by the UN nuclear watchdog, as US President Barack Obama warned of “consequences” yesterday if Tehran refused to come clean on its atomic program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised suspicions on Monday that Iran could be hiding more atomic facilities and complained that it was not fully in compliance with its nuclear obligations.
It also demanded further information about the purpose of a previously secret nuclear site, which when disclosed in September triggered outrage in the West.
Tehran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, dismissed the constant stream of IAEA reports as “repetitive and tedious” and said Iran would continue uranium enrichment.
“Iran will continue to exercise its right to peaceful use of nuclear energy, including enrichment,” he said in reaction to the IAEA report.
In the report, the IAEA said it had been told by Iran in a letter that the new site near the Shiite holy city of Qom should be operational in 2011, heightening concerns Tehran is edging closer to developing a nuclear bomb.
“Iran’s declaration of the new facility reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other nuclear facilities under construction and gives rise to questions about whether there were any other nuclear facilities in Iran which [have] not been declared to the agency,” it said.
The report came as world powers await a response from Iran to an IAEA-brokered deal to ship Iran’s low-enriched uranium stock out of the country.
Enrichment lies at the center of fears about Iran’s nuclear program as the process, which makes nuclear fuel, can also be used to make atomic bombs.
Iran vehemently denies seeking a bomb, insisting it only wants enrichment for peaceful purposes and to make fuel for power plants although its first and much-delayed plant, which is being built by Russians, is yet to come on line.
“Iran has an opportunity to present and demonstrate its peaceful intentions, but if it fails to take this opportunity, there will be consequences,” Obama said in Beijing yesterday.
“On this point our two nations and [other global powers] are unified,” Obama said.
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