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IAEA Admits Mistake On Iran’s Nuclear Program
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ElBaradei
argued it was a minor error on part of his agency
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VIENNA,
June 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) admitted on Thursday, June 17, it had
wrongly accused Iran of withholding information about importing
magnets for advanced centrifuges.
An
Iranian interviewed in January had mentioned importing magnets, but
the fact was not mentioned in an IAEA report in June on Iran's nuclear
program, a senior International Atomic Energy Agency official told a
meeting of the agency's 35-nation board of governors, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
IAEA
deputy director general Pierre Goldschmidt said the IAEA
"acknowledges that it omitted to take notice of the oral
statement made in January with respect to the importation of
magnets."
"This
has been a big mistake," Hossein Mousavian, secretary of the
foreign policy committee of Iran's Supreme National Security Council,
told reporters on the sidelines of an IAEA board meeting.
He
said Iran welcomed the fact that the IAEA had corrected the error but
said the report had tainted the whole atmosphere of the meeting.
"Unfortunately,
this is late," Mousavian said.
However,
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei claimed it was a minor error, and one
that the Iranians could have helped to correct before it got into the
report.
"You
have to understand we work with thousands of papers and thousands of
sites," ElBaradei said. "Everybody makes mistakes."
He
said Iran had never reported the imports in writing, arguing there
remains a "lack of clarity" about Iran's centrifuge program.
Tough
Resolution
In
another development, the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran – which
insists its nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes - is
set to agree to a tough IAEA resolution.
IAEA
diplomats said they expected to agree Thursday on a draft
British-French-German resolution calling for the IAEA's 15-month-old
investigation into Iran's activities to be stepped up and for Tehran
to do more to help it complete the probe within a few months.
Iranian
President Mohammad Khatami warned Wednesday, June 16, that if the
agency adopts a tough resolution his country could back away from key
commitments such as the suspension of uranium enrichment and allowing
tougher inspections.
Mousavian,
who leads the Iranian delegation, said Tehran was still willing to
work with the IAEA and would accept the investigation of its nuclear
program being extended until September instead of being wrapped up in
June.
But
he called for the IAEA to "change substantially" its
resolution, arguing that "atmosphere created in the board has
been that information from Iran has been contradictory and with
changes."
Mousavian
said Tehran rejected the text, especially its call for a halt to tests
at a uranium conversion facility, a key step in the nuclear fuel
cycle, according to a copy of the text obtained by Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
He
said uranium conversion is not forbidden by the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The
Iranian official also said Tehran had already complied with
"three major requests" from the IAEA as a
confidence-building measure.
Iran
agreed last October to allow snap IAEA inspections, provide a full
account of its nuclear activities and suspend uranium enrichment.
The
United States accuses Iran of using its atomic energy program as a
cover for the secret development of nuclear weapons, a claim
repudiated by Tehran which insists it is only interested
in producing electricity.
Iran
holds around 90 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, roughly 7% of
the world's total, and claims another 30 billion barrels.
The
vast majority of Iran's crude oil reserves are located in giant
onshore fields in the southwestern Khuzestan region near the Iraqi
border.
American
and British forces launched a massive offensive on neighboring Iraq on
claims the Arab country had weapons of mass destruction.
More
than one year after its occupation, no such banned arms have been
found, raising pretexts the invasion was based on false pretexts.
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