Pressure builds over Iran nuclear activities

The US and its allies are pushing the UN to declare that Iran has operated a nuclear weapons programme in the past and that related activities are continuing, despite Tehran’s assurances to the contrary.

Such a move would heighten the pressure on the Islamic republic at a time when its nuclear programme is rebounding from the effects of the Stuxnet computer virus and international attention has been focused on the Arab uprising.

“Many countries, including the US, have urged the International Atomic Energy Agency [the UN’s nuclear watchdog] to draw some conclusions,” said a senior US administration official, in comments echoed by counterparts from the UK and France. “In the absence of real co-operation and real transparency, the agency will have no choice on Iran but to proceed with its own assessment.”

Iran’s nuclear programme, which Israel depicts as a threat and the US as deeply destabilising for the region, has already been subjected to sanctions by the UN, the US and the European Union.

But the IAEA has never formally found the programme is militarily oriented. Instead, the agency says it has been unable to verify that it is exclusively peaceful – and despite the sanctions Tehran has continued to enrich uranium, a process that can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material.

Yukiya Amano, IAEA director-general, wrote last month to Iran demanding answers to questions about possible military-related nuclear activities, issues he says Tehran has failed to address since August 2008.

US officials say Mr Amano’s letter could pave the way for a formal finding about Tehran’s programme. In total the IAEA has identified seven areas of concern about possible military dimensions to the programme, which Iran has long insisted is purely peaceful.

The IAEA’s most recent report also shows Iran is now enriching uranium at its fastest rate, recovering from problems last year when the facilities were hit by Stuxnet, a mysterious cyberattack. “They had some setbacks in 2010 but they have made up for those setbacks,” the US official said.

The US view – expressed by officials and a national intelligence estimate issued this year – is that Tehran had an active nuclear weapons programme until 2003, which it has not yet decided to resume fully.

They argue that while the Iranian government has not decided to produce a nuclear bomb, it wants to be able to produce a weapon as quickly as possible should such a decision be made – and that a Tehran on the threshold of nuclear weapons capability would be a greater threat to the region.

An IAEA official declined to comment on Mr Amano’s intentions but said the issue would be discussed by member states at a board of governors meeting today.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.

Source: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/cabfd41c-8f8b-11e0-954d-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1OQfpmGOx