Iran issues fresh warning towards IAEA
Thursday, 29 May 2008 11:49
Iran issues fresh warning towards UN's International Atomic Energy Agency
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Iran has issued a fresh warning towards the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) claiming it may suspend cooperation with the agency.
The warning came on the same day the US demanded Tehran provide further answers about its nuclear programme after a critical report from the IAEA.
"The Iranians have a lot of explaining to do about the IAEA report, which essentially sees them as not cooperating on some very important, dark questions that the international community has about their programs," US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.
Ms Rice made the comments en-route to a conference on Iraq in Sweden, referring to the "serious concern" voiced by the IAEA report, which claimed that Iran may be hiding information regarding its nuclear programme.
The report prompted Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani to warn Tehran may review its relationship with the UN watchdog.
"Unfortunately, in certain parts it spoke in an ambiguous way. This was used by the media, as you have seen, in the last days. This attitude of the agency is regrettable," Mr Larijani said in a speech on state radio.
"Parliament will not allow that such deceptions are made and if they continue along this path, the new parliament will intervene in the case and set a new line for cooperation with the IAEA."
Foreign secretary David Miliband commented on the report earlier this week: "The director general of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, has produced another thorough report on Iran's nuclear activities. Once again it confirms that Iran has failed to suspend enrichment-related activities, has made no progress on the transparency measures the UN security council and IAEA have long called for, and has failed to answer the IAEA's questions relating to studies with a possible military dimension.
"Dr El Baradei says that this is a 'matter of serious concern'. Iran needs to provide answers immediately, and come clean about its past activities. There is no justification for further delay. This is critical for international trust to be restored, as is suspension of enrichment-related activities."