Iran N-dialogue not to continue endlessly: IAEA

Reuters

Vienna: A UN nuclear agency investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Iran will not be an "endless process", its chief said on Monday, pressuring Tehran to step up cooperation with the long-stalled probe.

Three weeks after Iran failed to meet a deadline for providing requested information to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Director General Yukiya Amano said Tehran needed to do much more to address the IAEA's concerns.

In line with the findings of a confidential IAEA report earlier this month, he said Iran had not carried out two of the five transparency steps it had agreed to implement by August 25.

Lack of progress in the IAEA investigation could further complicate efforts by six world powers to negotiate a resolution to the wider, decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear work and persuade it to curb it in exchange for a gradual ending of sanctions.

"Iran needs to be as transparent as possible to clarify these issues," Amano told a news conference.

The UN agency would give an impartial and factual assessment to its 35-nation board on what the IAEA calls the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme when it has a "good understanding of the whole picture", he said.

The investigation could be carried out within a "reasonable timeline" if Iran cooperated with the IAEA, he said, suggesting it could be done in roughly 15 months or less.

"This is not an endless process," the veteran Japanese diplomat said.

Unaddressed issues
Western diplomats say the IAEA at some stage would probably produce an assessment even if Iran - which denies it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability - were to stonewall the UN agency, although it would be based on incomplete information.

The two issues that have not yet been addressed by Iran under a cooperation pact with the IAEA are alleged experiments on explosives that could be used for an atomic device and also studies related to calculating nuclear explosive yields.

Amano earlier on Monday told the IAEA's governing board that Iran had "begun discussions" with the IAEA on these topics but he gave no details.

He further said the UN agency had also asked Iran to propose future transparency steps to help advance the investigation, but that it had yet to do so.

In 2011, the IAEA published a report that included intelligence indicating Iran had a nuclear weapons research programme but halted it in 2003 when it came under increased international pressure.