IAEA declares 'gridlock' with Iran

The atomic watchdog says the investigation into whether Iran's nuclear programme has a military dimension is stymied.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, centre, visits the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility 322km south of the capital Tehran, Iran. Ahmadinejad announced major progress in Iran's push for nuclear poShow more

The UN's atomic watchdog said there was "serious concern" over aspects of Iran's nuclear programme after the agency failed to make any "substantive" progress on investigating allegations that Tehran's activities have a possible military dimension. "On this particular issue, we've arrived at a gridlock," said a senior official close to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA's critical report will probably focus international attention once more on Iran, which has been out of the headlines since the crisis erupted early last month between the United States and Russia over Georgia. The White House promptly warned Tehran that it faced possible new sanctions. "The Iranian regime's continued defiance only further isolates the Iranian people," said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman. The "alleged studies" suggest Iran may have been trying to develop a nuclear warhead, convert uranium and test high explosives and a missile re-entry system.

The IAEA also said Iran was still expanding its uranium enrichment programme instead of suspending it - as demanded by the UN Security Council - and was testing advanced machines able to refine uranium two to three times faster. Iran's ambassador to the IAEA said his country will continue enriching uranium, the ISNA news agency reported yesterday. "Stating that Iran did not obey the United Nations Security Council resolution asking it to halt uranium enrichment shows this reality: that Iran found no logical and legal reasons for doing so," Ali Asghar Soltanieh said. "Therefore it cannot give up its undeniable right under the International Atomic Energy Agency charter."

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly stated that his country was increasing the number of its centrifuges enriching uranium while insisting the programme is solely for the peaceful generation of electricity. The IAEA report said Tehran had raised the number of these centrifuges to 3,820 from 3,300 in May, with over 2,000 more being installed. But Tehran was still some way from refining enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon, if it chose to, the report said. Iran had stockpiled 480kg of low-enriched uranium so far but would need 15,000kg to convert it into highly-enriched uranium for fuelling a nuclear bomb. "That would be a significant quantity ? and would take on the order of two years," one UN official said. Tehran has dismissed the intelligence on "weaponisation" studies, which mainly comes from the United States, as fabricated or irrelevant. But the IAEA said its investigators had stressed to Iran that the intelligence documentation was sufficiently detailed and consistent "to be taken seriously, particularly in light of the fact that, as acknowledged by Iran, some of the information contained in it was factually accurate". Without greater transparency from Iran, the IAEA would "not be able to provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran", the report added.

The agency's assessment coincided with reports that the United States has agreed to sell Israel 1,000 bunker-buster bombs that could improve Israel's ability to strike underground nuclear facilities. Iranian media interpreted the deal, worth US$77 million (Dh283m), which needs congressional approval, as a hostile move. "US spawns prospect for Israel war on Iran," read a headline on the website of Press TV, an English-language news channel.

But Israeli military experts doubted the Boeing GBU-39 smart bombs would be sufficient to deal a crippling blow to Iran's dispersed nuclear facilities, which are buried deep and reinforced by metres of concrete. The bombs were better suited to targeting Hizbollah's and Hamas's underground weaponry in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Iran's air force and defence units, meanwhile, began war games yesterday in half of the country's 30 provinces, aimed at "testing equipment and boosting their readiness". Iran's air force commander, Brig Gen Ahmad Mighani, declared that "the enemies would receive a serious response for any aggression and we would surprise them and make them regretful".

Iran swiftly agreed with the IAEA that there had been no progress, but laid the blame squarely on the agency. Tehran would continue its "constructive interaction" with the IAEA but said the agency needed to "adopt a legal and logical approach based on evidence".

Iran was said to have refused the IAEA access in August to workshops possibly involved in redesigning missile cones. Iran had limited its co-operation with the agency to the minimum under its nuclear safeguards accord with the IAEA, diplomats said. That means permitting routine and limited inspections of declared nuclear sites to continue, but not allowing extra access that Iran says would compromise its security and involve solely conventional military installations beyond the IAEA's writ. Iran is understood to be concerned that the United States or Israel could use such visits to collect co-ordinates for future attacks.

Iran has been hit with three sets of Security Council sanctions for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. The United States had been preparing to press for a fourth set five weeks ago after Tehran stonewalled on an international offer of incentives. But rising tensions between Moscow and Washington over Georgia have meant the White House is less likely to secure Kremlin support for further sanctions.