The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called on Iran on Thursday to allow stricter inspections of the nuclear reactor sites that the US has said are being used to develop atomic weapons. Iran rejected the request.
In a statement concluding three days of debate, the 35-member governing board of the agency said Iran should "promptly and unconditionally conclude and implement an additional protocol to its Safeguards Agreement, in order to enhance the agency's ability to provide credible assurances regarding the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear activities."
The statement was in effect a call on Iran, which denies that it is building nuclear weapons, to allow further inspections of its reactor sites, including chemical samplings of the areas that have been identified as places where enriched uranium suitable for weapons is being produced.
"I'm very satisfied with the outcome today," the US. ambassador to the agency, Kenneth Brill, said. "We have an important message from the board that supports the US position and concern about the Iranian program."
Brill said he welcomed the board's call for "unqualified cooperation by Iran to help the IAEA get to the bottom of this."
The agency is scheduled to hear a report in September based on further inspections of the Iranian nuclear program.
The Iranian representative, Ali Salehi, rejected the call for wider inspections, saying, "We have dissociated ourselves from this part of the statement."
Thursday's action by the agency, an arm of the UN that monitors nuclear practices around the world, came after three days of debate during which the US backed away from its initial demand that the agency issue a strong condemnation of Iran for its nuclear activities.
That step had been opposed by 15 countries represented on the board whose position was that Iran should be given a further chance to show that its nuclear programs are only for peaceful purposes.
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