Iran considers issue of detonators closed: official

TEHRAN – Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency has said that the Islamic Republic believes that the issue of Iran’s development of high explosive detonators is closed.

“In our view, the issue of detonators is closed,” Ambassador Reza Najafi said in an interview with ISNA published on Tuesday in reference to the UN nuclear agency’s investigation into what it calls the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran says its nuclear program is only meant for peaceful purposes and denies claims that it might have tried to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons.

In May, Iran gave the IAEA information it had requested about its reasons for developing Exploding Bridge Wire detonators under a framework agreement on further cooperation that Iran and the agency signed last November.

After talks with IAEA director Yukiya Amano in Tehran on Sunday, Atomic Energy Agency of Iran director Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iran expected the UN nuclear agency to take steps to close its investigation of the issue of detonators.

He also said the discussions with Mr. Amano had focused on the issue of Exploding Bridge Wire detonators, adding that Iranian experts answered the agency’s questions in this regard.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Najafi said that Iran has started implementing five additional practical measures it agreed in May to take as part of the framework accord.

Under the agreement, Iran among other things undertook to exchange information with the agency with respect to the allegations related to the initiation of high explosives, provide information and arrange a technical visit to a centrifuge research and development centre, and provide information and managed access to centrifuge assembly workshops, centrifuge rotor production workshops, and storage facilities.

IAEA inspectors have so far visited a number of Iranian nuclear sites, including the Saghand uranium mine, the Ardakan concentration plant, the Arak heavy-water reactor, and the Gachin uranium mine, under the framework accord.

According to Iranian officials, Iran has no commitments based on the safeguards agreement to allow such inspections, but it agreed to do so to show the country’s will to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program.

According to Reuters, the UN nuclear chief said on Monday that Iran had begun implementing nuclear transparency measures ahead of an August 25 deadline agreed with the agency to provide more information about its nuclear activities.

“The implementation of these five measures started,” Amano told reporters at Vienna airport on his return from Tehran, where he met senior Iranian officials.

“I expect that progress will be made over the next week,” said Amano, after securing what he called on Sunday a firm commitment to cooperate with the IAEA’s further investigation into Tehran’s nuclear program.

AM/PA