Last update - 00:00 15/02/2008
Diplomats: U.S. recently shared new batch of intel on Iran with IAEA
By The Associated Press
The U.S. has recently shared new sensitive information with the International Atomic Energy Agency on key aspects of Iran's nuclear program that Washington says shows Tehran was directly engaged in trying to make an atomic weapon, diplomats said.
One of the diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday that Washington also gave the IAEA permission to confront Iran with at least some of the evidence in an attempt to pry details out of the Islamic republic on the activities, as part of the United Nations nuclear watchdog's attempts to investigate Iran's suspicious nuclear past.
The diplomats suggested that such moves by the U.S. administration would be a reflection of Washington's drive to pressure Iran into admitting that it had focused part of its nuclear efforts toward developing a weapons program.
While the Americans have previously declassified and then forwarded intelligence to the IAEA to help its investigations, they do so on a selective basis.
Following Israel's bombing of a Syrian site late last year, and media reports citing unidentified U.S. officials as saying the target was a nuclear installation, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei turned in vain to the U.S. in asking for details on what was struck, said a diplomat who - like others - asked for anonymity in exchange for divulging confidential information.
Already shared over the past two years by the U.S. was material on a laptop computer reportedly smuggled out of Iran. In 2005, U.S. intelligence assessed that information as indicating that Tehran had been working on details of nuclear weapons, including missile trajectories and ideal altitudes for exploding warheads.
After declassification, U.S. intelligence also was forwarded on two other issues - the Green Salt Project - a plan the U.S. alleges links diverse components of a nuclear weapons program, including uranium enrichment, high explosives testing and a missile re-entry vehicle, and material in Iran's possession showing how to mold uranium metal into warhead form.
Two of the diplomats said the material forwarded to the IAEA over the past two weeks expanded on the previous information from the Americans, but had no additional details.
Iran is under two sets of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, which it started developing during nearly two decades of covert nuclear activity built on illicit purchases and revealed only five years ago.
Since then, IAEA experts have uncovered activities, exailing to halt enrichment. Any decision by Washington's to share a new batch of sensitive information with the IAEA would seem to be an attempt to regain the initiative in trying to force Iran to admit to such programs in the past.
A 35-nation IAEA board meeting next month will focus on Iran's nuclear defiance and evaluate ElBaradei's efforts to probe its past - including allege not ElBaradei who makes decisions on what to do about Iran, he said.
If ElBaradei's probe is deemed unsatisfactory, the board, through a new resolution has to report to the Security Council that the agency has done all that it can do, and that it cannot guarantee for the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program, he said.