ElBaradei: Iran blocking IAEA from verifying its nuclear ambitions

The UN nuclear chief said Monday that Iran is blocking his watchdog agency from verifying whether the nation has any ambitions for nuclear weaponry.

"I regret that we are still not in a position to achieve full clarity regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran," Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the UN General Assembly.

He said this was because the IAEA has not been able to make substantive progress on the so-called alleged studies and associated questions relevant to the possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program.

He urged Iran to do more to ensure transparency, but emphasized the IAEA does not in any way seek to pry into Iran's conventional or missile-related military activities.

Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mohammad Khazaee countered that the UN Security Council's demand that his nation suspend uranium enrichment is illegal.

"Iran's nuclear program," he said, "is only for peaceful purposes and designed to produce nuclear energy and the nation will never accept illegal demands."

He added that six world powers have never responded to Tehran's proposal for negotiations without pre-conditions aimed at resolving its nuclear stand-off with the West.

Instead, Khazaee told the General Assembly that a small group of countries continued to insist that Iran halt its uranium enrichment program, a demand that he said violated international law.

"The 5+1 Group has yet to provide its response to Iran's proposed package," he said, referring to a proposal for talks delivered in May to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany.

"The policy of few powers in insisting on suspension as a precondition for negotiations bears zero relation to realities and is an irrational and failed policy," Khazaee said.

He said that instead of imposing economic penalties on Tehran, which has been hit with three rounds of UN sanctions, "a solution that is based on realities...should be pursued."

The proposal of Iran, which Western countries suspect is amassing the capability to produce atomic weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear energy program, was intended to counter the six powers' offer of economic and political incentives in exchange for a suspension of enrichment work.

But the Iranian counter-offer to China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States ignored the Western demand for halting enrichment. U.S. and European officials dismissed the Iranian proposal and Russia has described it as disappointing, though the six never formally rejected it.