The UN atomic watchdog's new report on Iran's nuclear programme turns up the heat on Tehran by accusing it of withholding key information on alleged attempts to make nuclear arms, experts said Tuesday.
“The new report is very severe and slams Iran for its lack of transparency,” says Maurin Picard, FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Vienna, where the agency is based.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressed "serious concern" in the report that Iran is still hiding information about alleged studies into making nuclear warheads and defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
The IAEA has been investigating Tehran's nuclear activities for four years, but has so far been unable to establish once and for all whether the activities are entirely peaceful.
Weaponisation
The report contained no "sugar-coated suggestion that Iran has been forthcoming in addressing almost all of the IAEA's outstanding questions,” Mark Fitzpatrick, non-proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the AFP in London. Instead, it provided “a detailed listing of all the evidence of past work on various aspects of weaponisation," he said.
The IAEA is demanding explanations on Iranian nuclear studies that include a uranium conversion project, high explosives testing and designs for a missile re-entry vehicle. These activities suggest there may have been a possible military angle to past nuclear work.
According to Francis Sorin, Information director at the French Society of Nuclear Energy, it seems Iran has reached a new phase of nuclear and military development. “Once you have enough Uranium 235 to make a nuclear explosion,” he explains on FRANCE 24, “you need to work on a very powerful detonation system.” And, according to the report, it seems Iran has started working on this system, he warns.
A French diplomatic source told the AFP that the most worrying element in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report concerned changes to the warhead of Iran's Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile.
These changes "could enable a nuclear charge to be loaded there," the source said, adding that Paris was also worried about tests on explosive systems that could be used to detonate a nuclear charge.
No rush to apply new sanctions
While France, Germany and the US were swift to express their concern at the new AIEA findings, it’s not sure they will press for more sanctions. “The UN security council is not going to rush ahead with a fourth wave of sanctions because this strategy has had little effect so far,” says Philippe Bolopion, FRANCE 24 correspondent in New York.
“Russia and China will reluctantly accept any more sanctions and Western powers now have to rethink their strategy,” he adds.
France and Germany both expressed serious “concerns” about the content of the report. And Israel, widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed country in the Middle-East, urged the international community to "increase the pressure on Iran."
Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh insisted his country had answered all outstanding questions. "We have left no question unanswered. We have given all the explanations needed as far as we are concerned," he said.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday he hoped to travel to Iran soon to present a new offer from major world powers on suspending enrichment, while The IAEA board is set to discuss the report at its upcoming meeting on June 2-6.
