UN atomic agency chief frustrated by Iran

Vienna: The head of the UN atomic agency said on Monday that the lack of progress in getting Iran to address allegations of nuclear weapons research was “frustrating”.

“Despite the intensified dialogue between the Agency and Iran since January, no concrete results have been achieved so far,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said at the start of an IAEA board meeting.

“This is frustrating because, without Iran’s full engagement, we will not be able to start the process to resolve all outstanding issues, including those involving possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme.

“We consider it essential for Iran to engage with us without further delay on the substance of our concerns,” Amano said, according to the text of his speech released by the Vienna-based IAEA.

The IAEA has held several rounds of fruitless talks with Iran in recent months to press for access to sites and scientists involved in what it suspects has been a nuclear weapons research programme prior to 2003 and possibly since.

Iran denies conducting any such research and says that the documentation backing up the IAEA’s accusations, set out in a major report last November, are forgeries. Amano even visited Tehran earlier this year.

Amano also said that activities at the Parchin military base, where Iran is accused of having carried out weapons research and of removing evidence since, “will have an adverse impact on our ability to undertake effective verification there.”

He added: “In a letter dated 29 August 2012, Iran stated that the allegation of nuclear activities at the Parchin site was ‘baseless’.

“However, the activities observed further strengthen our assessment that it is necessary to have access to the location at Parchin without further delay in order to obtain the required clarifications.”