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Last update - 22:35 27/11/2008
European powers: Iran showing 'utter disrespect' for UN nuclear watchdog
By Reuters
Tags: Iran, IAEA, nuclear 

Iran is showing "utter disrespect" for the UN nuclear watchdog by ignoring unanswered questions about its atomic program, European powers said on Thursday.

Officials close to the International Atomic Energy Agency said last week its inquiry into suspected atom bomb research by Iran had degenerated into a standoff with neither side speaking since September, soon after Iran asserted "the matter is over".

"(This has been) two months of utter disrespect for the agency and members of this board," Britain, France, and Germany said in a statement to the IAEA's 35-nation governing body.
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British Ambassador Simon Smith, delivering the "EU-3" statement, said some on the UN nuclear executive were originally confident Iran would cooperate with the probe.

"Iran's dismissive response to these expressions of confidence is all too starkly set out in the report before this board, with its unmitigated record of refusal to cooperate," the statement said.

Iran's denial of an IAEA request to check design details at a research reactor under construction and its failure to provide preliminary design data for a nuclear power plant planned at Darkhovin were of particular concern, he said.

Iran's program was dangerous because it "continues and intensifies a threat to the stability of a troubled region", the statement said.

Iran says it is enriching uranium only to generate electricity. The West suspects Iran's program is a front for efforts to develop atomic bomb fuel.

The IAEA has struggled to get to the bottom of U.S. intelligence suggesting that Iran in the past melded projects to process uranium for atomic fuel, test high explosives at unusually high altitudes and revamp the cone of a long-range Shahab-3 missile in a way that would fit a nuclear warhead.

A previous IAEA report in September detailed the Islamic Republic's non-cooperation with requests for documents and access to sites and officials and physicists for interviews.

The investigation has not advanced an inch since then, with no letters, meetings or even talks by phone, UN officials say.

Iran says the U.S. intelligence is forged and sites the IAEA wants to visit are conventional military facilities that any nation would keep off-limits on security grounds. It argues they are therefore beyond the remit or competence of UN inspectors.

Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh again rebuffed Western criticism, saying Iran had given the IAEA all assurances it needed of its peaceful intentions.

He was alluding to more than 200 pages of documents it turned over in June, but which the IAEA judged inadequate.

Condemning Western pressure on Iran, he add: "(We) warn that the authority, independence, credibility and integrity of the IAEA are at high risk and urge an end to the dangerous process and status quo before it is too late."


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  • Chronology of Iran's nuclear program
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      1.   A repeat of the 1930s only this time they face nukes, extinction 22:44  |  observer 27/11/08
      2.   European powers show "utter disrespect" 23:00  |  Che Vive 27/11/08
      3.   Iran showing `utter disrespect` ....thats putting it mildly... 23:14  |  James 27/11/08
      4.   Imagine the terror attacks once/if Iran gets nukes... 23:21  |  Col. John C Mclure 27/11/08
      5.   che vive 23:28  |  Daniel 27/11/08
      6.   Che is dead 23:34  |  Daniel 27/11/08
      7.   No. 2 Che Vive 23:44  |  Henry Blofeld 27/11/08
      8.   How long can EU stay stupid? 23:48  |  Joe Sittizen 27/11/08
      9.   If Israel, Pakistan, and India have the right to get an A-bomb, 00:58  |  Lebanese Canadian 28/11/08
      10.   Daniel and Henry, #s 5, 6, and 7 01:39  |  Che Vive 28/11/08
      11.   CHE VIVE IRAN has signed the NPT.Mullahs can chose to renounce it 01:43  |  PETER SM 28/11/08
      12.   The naive Euro lefties..... 02:04  |  Nemesis 28/11/08
      13.   Israel should sign NPT 04:46  |  kia 28/11/08
      14.   Puting the emphasis where needed 06:51  |  Mark Lincoln 28/11/08
      15.   Lebanese Canadian 07:00  |  Mark Lincoln 28/11/08
      16.   Peter S&M 07:03  |  Mark Lincoln 28/11/08
      17.   Nemisis - Those `European lefties` 07:17  |  Mark Lincoln 28/11/08
      18.   disrespect 07:56  |  colin 28/11/08
      19.   Ahmeninedjab:"Islamic Revolution NOT limited to borders" 17:27  |  Arthur 28/11/08
      20.   THAT`S RIGHT "UTTER DISRESPECT" AND YOU INIQUITY FILLED COWARDS 17:55  |  glenna 28/11/08
      21.   Thats why European Nations Meet in Private With Mullah`s 20:54  |  Yuri 28/11/08
      22.   #17 Mark Lincoln...you must have missed 16:38  |  Lynn 01/12/08
      23.   There was a November IAEA report 14:17  |  Shelly T 08/12/08
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