Don't Bomb Iran

Category: Errors in the media

  • AP wrong: says Iran admitted having nuclear weapons programme in 2002

    Iran “admitted in 2002 that it had run a secret atomic weapons program for nearly two decades” Associated Press misinformed the world in a major story titled “Iran ends nuclear cooperation with UN nuclear arms probe”. There was no such admission nor evidence for such a claim. So after complaints AP later refined its secret weapons allegation to one of a secret nuclear program “in violation of its commitments”, which is also wrong, as Iran has been openly building a nuclear programme for years with IAEA and Western help – hardly secret – and it was under no IAEA “commitment” to announce its uranium enrichment plans before starting the program (ref?) . One wonders what else of this story to believe.

    Iran ends cooperation with UN nuclear arms probe

    Iran indicates end of cooperation with UN probe for secret nuclear weapons programs

    GEORGE JAHN
    AP News

    Jul 24, 2008 12:30 EST

    Iran signaled Thursday that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began.

    The announcement from Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh compounded skepticism about denting Tehran’s nuclear defiance, just five days after Tehran stonewalled demands from six world powers that it halt activities capable of producing the fissile core of warheads.

    Besides demanding a suspension of uranium enrichment — a process that can create both fuel for nuclear reactors and payloads for atomic bombs — the six powers have been pressing Tehran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s probe.

    Iran, which is obligated as a signer of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty not to develop nuclear arms, raised suspicions about its intentions when it admitted in 2002 that it had run a secret atomic weapons program for nearly two decades in violation of its commitment.

    The Tehran regime insists it halted such work and is now only trying to produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. It agreed on a “work plan” with the Vienna-based IAEA a year ago for U.N. inspectors to look into allegations Iran is still doing weapons work.

    At the time, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei hailed it as “a significant step forward” that would fill in the missing pieces of Tehran’s nuclear jigsaw puzzle — if honored by Iran. He brushed aside suggestions Iran was using the deal as a smoke screen to deflect attention from its continued defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand for a halt to uranium enrichment.

    The investigation ran into trouble just months after being launched. Deadline after deadline was extended because of Iranian foot-dragging. The probe, originally meant to be completed late last year, spilled into the first months of 2008, and beyond.

    Iran remains defiant. It dismisses as fabricated the evidence supplied by the U.S. and other members of the IAEA’s governing board purportedly backing allegations that Iranians continue to work on nuclear weapons.

    Officials say that among the evidence given to the IAEA are what seem to be Iranian draft plans to refit missiles with nuclear warheads; explosives tests that could be used to develop a nuclear detonator; and a drawing showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads. There are also questions about links between Iran’s military and civilian nuclear facilities.

    On Thursday, Aghazadeh appeared to signal that his country was no longer prepared even to discuss the issue with the IAEA.

    Investigating such allegations “is outside the domain of the agency,” he said after meeting with ElBaradei. Any further queries on the issue “will be dealt with in another way,” he said, without going into detail.

    Britain, one of those suspicious of Iran’s nuclear activities, was critical.

    “We are concerned by reports that Iran is refusing to cooperate with the IAEA on allegations over nuclear weapons,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement. “The IAEA has raised serious concerns over Iran’s activities with a possible military dimension. If Iran is serious about restoring international confidence in its intentions, it must address these issues.”

    The IAEA asked in vain for explanations from Iran, and its last report in May said Iran might be withholding information on whether it tried to make nuclear arms. Reflecting ElBaradei’s frustration, the report used language described by one senior U.N. official as unique in its direct criticism of Tehran.

    Aghazadeh’s comments Thursday appeared to jibe with those of diplomats familiar with the probe who told The Associated Press that the IAEA had run into a dead end.

    A senior diplomat on Thursday attributed Tehran’s intransigence in part to anger over a multimedia presentation by IAEA Deputy Director-General Olli Heinonen to the agency’s 35 board members based on intelligence about the alleged weapons work. The diplomat, like others, agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name because his information was confidential.

    Tehran dismisses the suspicions of the U.S. and allies, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday again vowed that his country would not “retreat one iota” from pursuing uranium enrichment.

    On Saturday, a U.S. diplomat had participated in talks with Iran held in Geneva, raising expectations that a compromise might be reached under which Iran would agree to temporarily stop expansion of enrichment activities. In exchange, the six world powers — the U.S., Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China — would hold off on adopting new U.N. sanctions against Iran.

    But participants at Geneva said Iranian negotiators skirted the freeze issue despite the presence of U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns.

    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday accused Iran of not being serious at the Geneva talks. She warned that all six nations were serious about a two-week deadline for Iran to agree to freeze suspect activities and start negotiations or else be hit with a fourth set of U.N. penalties.

    Aghazadeh, who is also head of Iran’s atomic agency, played down the international complaints, but he also evaded a direct answer on whether Tehran would give any ground on an enrichment freeze.

    “Both sides are carefully studying the concerns and expectations of both sides,” he told reporters.

    ___

    Associated Press writer David Stringer in London contributed to this report.

  • Iran has resumed A-bomb project, says Telegraph

    More unsubstantiated allegations from the UK Daily Telegraph’s Con Coughlin, one of the major scaremongers about Iraq’s non-existent WMD programme. As with the Iraq allegations, note that the article implies that the IAEA cannot find the facilities that unnamed Western intelligence sources say they know exist, and implies that Iran’s new – and public – P2 enrichment technology is by definition for weapons, and cannot be simply for more efficient fuel production.

    Iran has resumed A-bomb project, says West

    By Con Coughlin
    Last Updated: 8:13AM BST 07 Jul 2008
    Iran has resumed work on constructing highly sophisticated equipment that nuclear experts say is primarily used for building atomic weapons, according to the latest intelligence reports received by Western diplomats.
    The work is aimed at developing the blueprint provided by Dr AQ Khan, the “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, who sold Iran details of how to build atom bombs in the early 1990s.

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which has overall responsibility for the country’s nuclear programme, has set up several civilian companies to work on the programme whose activities are being deliberately concealed from the United Nations nuclear inspection teams.

    The companies, based on the outskirts of Tehran, are working on constructing components for the advanced P2 gas centrifuge, which can enrich uranium to weapons grade two to three times faster than conventional P1 centrifuges.

    Iran’s controversial nuclear enrichment programme at Natanz, which Tehran insists is designed to produce fuel for nuclear power, runs on P1 centrifuges. But Iranian nuclear scientists recently conducted successful tests on a prototype P2 centrifuge at Natanz, and the Revolutionary Guard has now set up a network of companies to build components for the advanced centrifuges.

    This has raised concerns among Western experts that Iran is continuing work on its nuclear weapons programme, despite Tehran’s protestations that its intentions are peaceful.

    “If Iran’s nuclear intentions were peaceful there would be no need for it to undertake this work in secret,” said an official familiar with the intelligence reports.

    A previous clandestine attempt by Iran to develop P2 centrifuges was halted in 2004 after the existence of a civilian company set up by the Revolutionary Guard was exposed. UN nuclear inspectors found traces of weapons-grade uranium at the company when they inspected the premises.

    Reports that Iran has resumed work on sophisticated uranium enrichment technology follow Tehran’s announcement at the weekend that it has no intention of halting its uranium enrichment programme at Natanz.

    Iranian officials were speaking the day after they had formally submitted their response to a package put together by the world’s leading powers – including Britain – offering a number of incentives in return for halting enrichment.

    While European officials yesterday refused to disclose details of the Iranian response, one said that “it was not something that made us jump up and down for joy”.

    An Iranian government spokesman said: “Iran’s stand regarding its peaceful nuclear programme has not changed.”

    According to recent intelligence reports, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, personally ordered the Revolutionary Guard to set up companies for the secret manufacture of components for P2 centrifuges this year.

    One of the companies is in a residential building in Amir Abad, western Tehran, where its work is unlikely to be detected by UN nuclear inspectors. One of the facilities is said to be run by a company owned by the Revolutionary Guard.

    The operation is a direct copy of the Revolutionary Guard’s previous attempt to develop P2 centrifuges, when research work was undertaken by the Kalaye Electric Company, which claimed it was manufacturing watches.

    When its true activity was revealed to UN nuclear inspectors in 2004, they found the company had succeeded in building the centrifuges and enriching small quantities of uranium to weapons grade.

    Senior officials from Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency are supervising the current clandestine programme, which is based on the atomic weapons blueprint sold to Iran by Dr Khan in 1994.

    Reports that Iran is actively working on Dr Khan’s blueprint will deepen suspicions that Tehran has resumed work on its nuclear weapons programme.

  • Iran arms Taliban says Petraeus with no evidence

    Iran ¨sends arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan¨ says General Petreus, with no evidence, despite the fact that Iran opened its airspace for the US attack on the Taliban in 2001, and secured Northern Alliance help to attack the Taliban on the ground for the US.

    “It undermines Lebanese hopes for peace by arming and aiding the terrorist group Hezbollah,” he added. “It subverts the hopes for peace in other parts of the region by funding terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad. It sends arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Shia militants in Iraq. It seeks to intimidate its neighbors with ballistic missiles and bellicose rhetoric. And finally, it defies the United Nations and destabilizes the region by refusing to be open and transparent about its nuclear programs and ambitions.”

  • IAEA again confirms Iranian compliance

    The IAEA’s report on Iran’s compliance with its NPT obligations has reached the public and is found here although it is officially still restricted. As expected Dr El Baradei finds no evidence of a military programme, finds that Iran is in compliance with their safeguard agreement, and has provided considerable information on historical anomalies in its hiding of information from the IAEA. The report does NOT say Iran could build a nuclear bomb within a year as the Guardian falsely reported yesterday. The report confirms Iran has continued to enrich uranium to 4% levels for fuel, as is its unalienable right under the NPT, although the Security Council has demanded it give up this right.

    The report gives considerable space to explaining how Iran over decades legally tried to obtain nuclear technology it was entitled to, and how many western contracts fell through, causing Iran to lose billions of dollars and to seek the technology on the black market (see extract below). The report confirms there is no evidence of a military nuclear programme, and that “in the next weeks” many of the remaining question marks about Iran’s past nuclear activities will be clarified. For a longer discussion of the report, see Gordon Prather’s analysis, where he also attacks the NY Time’s false claim that Iran has missed non-existant “key deadline” with the IAEA. (more…)

  • Decision time for US? IAEA says Iran one year from bomb?

    UPDATE 17 Nov 2007: The IAEA report has now appeared, and does NOT say Iran could build a warhead within a year as the Guardian reported yesterday.
    “Iran has installed 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium – enough to begin industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel and build a warhead within a year, the UN’s nuclear watchdog reported last night” reports the Guardian below The report has not been made public but will be considered at the Board’s Nov 22 meeting, and if it really does suggest a warhead could be built within a year, it would cut years off El Baradei’s most recent estimates. The Guardian suggests Iran is now crossing the US ‘red line’ which may trigger a military response, even though Iran is only producing fuel-grade uranium. The current US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) is for no Iranian bomb before 2012 or 2015, but the long awaited next NIE is expected this month

    UN nuclear report heightens tension

    Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
    Friday November 16, 2007
    The Guardian

    Iran has installed 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium – enough to begin industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel and build a warhead within a year, the UN’s nuclear watchdog reported last night.
    The report by Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will intensify US and European pressure for tighter sanctions and increase speculation of a potential military conflict.

    The installation of 3,000 fully-functioning centrifuges at Iran’s enrichment plant at Natanz is a “red line” drawn by the US across which Washington had said it would not let Iran pass. When spinning at full speed they are capable of producing sufficient weapons-grade uranium (enriched to over 90% purity) for a nuclear weapon within a year.

    The IAEA says the uranium being produced is only fuel grade (enriched to 4%) but the confirmation that Iran has reached the 3,000 centrifuge benchmark brings closer a moment of truth for the Bush administration, when it will have to choose between taking military action or abandoning its red line, and accepting Iran’s technical mastery of uranium enrichment.
    US generals are reported to have warned the White House that military action would trigger a devastating Iranian backlash in the Middle East and beyond.

    Russian officials yesterday called for patience, insisting Iran could still clinch a deal with the international community in the next few weeks. They pointed to other parts of the IAEA report showing Tehran had been cooperating with the agency’s inspectors on other nuclear issues.

    “We are most concerned to prevent Iran being cornered so that they walk out of the Non Proliferation Treaty, and break relations with the IAEA,” one Russian source said. He said Chinese officials were stepping up diplomatic pressure on Iran, with Moscow, to avert a collision.

    “They are on high alert that something has to be done quickly,” the source said.

    The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also seized on positive parts of the IAEA report, noting increased Iranian cooperation with inspectors, as vindication for Tehran. He said: “The world will see that the Iranian nation has been right and the resistance of our nation has been correct.”

    Last night, a Foreign Office spokesman said: “If Iran wants to restore trust in its programme it must come clean on all outstanding issues without delay.”

    Gordon Brown has called for increased pressure on Tehran, including an international ban on investment in the Iranian oil and gas industry. But UK officials are nervous about pressure from the US vice president Dick Cheney and other hawks for military action against Iran before a new administration takes office in January 2009. They emphasise that Iranian scientists could be months if not years away from getting the 3,000 centrifuges to function properly, at top speed, for a sustained period, and insist there is no imminent pressure for military intervention.

    However, they also point out that Israel’s red lines for military action are unclear.

    Against the fraught backdrop, a meeting of senior officials from the UN security council’s five permanent members and Germany to decide on sanctions, planned for Monday, was put off after the Chinese delegation said it could not attend.

    The critical meeting has been pushed back to later this month, giving time for the six-nation group’s negotiator, Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, to hold last-ditch talks with Iranian officials.

    The ElBaradei report gave a mixed account of Iran’s cooperation with inspectors looking into Tehran’s nuclear activity in the two decades before it declared its enrichment programme. “Iran has provided sufficient access to individuals and has responded in a timely manner to questions,” it said, but added that “cooperation has been reactive rather than proactive”.

    David Albright, a former UN inspector and now an independent nuclear expert in Washington, said ElBaradei appeared to be trying to put “a happy face” on a worsening situation. “The main issue is that Iran now has 3,000 centrifuges,” he said. “The report doesn’t even judge the quality of the information being offered, but it’s clear it is giving minimal answers.”

  • Stratfor says Iran has nuclear weapons – no evidence

    Stratfor, a major seller of global Strategic Forecasting intellingence, seems in no doubt that Iran already has nuclear weapons:  “If the United States takes out Iran’s nuclear weapons, the Russians will sympathize and arm the Iranians even more intensely” says  its 17 September  Geopolitical Intelligence Report “Red October: Russia, Iran and Iraq.”    It provides no evidence for such such apparently incorrect analysis and can be mailed at analysis@stratfor.com

  • Did Israel strike North Korean nuclear facility in Syria? No

    Respected Washington analysts reject this story as nonsense, but the mainstream media sadly swallowed the explosive “intelligence sources” with pre-Iraq credulity. Some analysts say its a dodgy propaganda campaign aimed at derailing the recent successful diplomacy in disarming North Korea. Jeffrey Lewis at Arms Control Wonk dismissively outlines the unthinking media frenzy and Joe Cirincione at Foreign Policy agrees (extract below). And nobody seems to ask why the US and Israel are not sharing knowledge of alleged secret nuclear facilities with the IAEA as required by various UN Resolutions.

    This story is nonsense. The Washington Post story should have been headlined “White House Officials Try to Push North Korea-Syria Connection” This is a political story, not a threat story. The mainstream media seems to have learned nothing from the run-up to war in Iraq.

  • Iran could have bomb by now – Bolton’s lie

    Three years ago Iran told Britain Germany and France that it could build a nuclear bomb within three years –  John Bolton (the last Bush ambassador to the UN) told reporters this bombshell news in August 2004.   However, Iran never told the EU this at all:  “Our reports of the meeting do not mention that such a statement was made,”    said a diplomat from the talks.   Nonetheless, Reuters ran the headline “US: Iran Says Can Have Nuclear Weapons in 3 Years”, saying the timescale  confirmed US intelligence estimates of Iran’s first bomb.     Three years on, the intelligence estimate is still three years away, except that IAEA inspectors have still found no evidence of any military programme.

    A copy of the 2004 story is below.

    US: Iran Says Can Have Nuclear Weapons in 3 Years
    Reuters Thu Aug 19, 2004 05:12 PM ET

    By Saul Hudson

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior U.S. official said on Thursday Iran has conceded to European powers it could build nuclear weapons in three years as Washington turned up the heat on Tehran to abandon what it says is a drive to acquire them.

    But European diplomats, who have sought to engage Iran in negotiations on the issue, were skeptical of the U.S. assertion, which could help a U.S. drive to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

    “Iran has told the EU three (Britain, Germany and France) that it could possess nuclear weapons within three years,” U.S. Under Secretary of State John Bolton told Reuters. “The Iranian assertion gives the lie to the public contention that their nuclear program is entirely civil and peaceful in purpose.”

    At a conference earlier this week, the hawkish appointee of Republican President Bush, made a similar statement about Iran’s assertions to the Europeans at talks last month. But on Thursday, he specified how soon Iran had said it could possess a weapon — a detail that coincides with the earliest U.S. estimates for an Iranian bomb.

    U.S. officials with access to intelligence estimates say Iran can achieve a bomb in three to five years.

    The United States hopes that referring Iran to the Security Council could pressure the country to stop programs it believes would be a danger in the Middle East, notably to its close ally Israel.

    European diplomats doubted Iran had made such a claim during last month’s negotiations.

    “Our reports of the meeting do not mention that such a statement was made,” a European diplomat from one of the countries involved in the talks said.

  • US experts 98% certain Iran got nuclear bombs – in 1992

    “Iran has up to 4 nuclear bombs” reported the Jerusalem Post in 1998, citing documents it had seen and which were certified by “US congressional experts” (article also below). These Iranian documents apparently confirmed 1992 reports by a US Task Force on Terrorism which claimed 98% certainty that Russia or Kazakstan had transferred weapons to Iran. It is odd that these certainties are not mentioned any more.

    Iran has up to 4 nuclear bombs

    By STEVE RODAN April 9, 1998 JERUSALEM (April 9) – Iran received several nuclear warheads from a former Soviet republic in the early 1990s and Russian experts maintained them, according to Iranian government documents relayed to Israel and obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

    The documents, deemed authentic by US congressional experts and still being studied in Israel, contain correspondence between Iranian government officials and leaders of the Revolutionary Guards that discusses Iran’s successful efforts to obtain nuclear warheads from former Soviet republics. “At this point, we can’t say for certain whether these are genuine,” a senior Israeli source said. “But they look awfully real.”

    A US government consultant said he is certain of the authenticity of the documents. “They are real and we have had them for years,” he said. The documents appear to bolster reports from 1992 that Iran received enriched uranium and up to four nuclear warheads from Kazakhstan, with help from the Russian underworld. A detailed account of the Iranian effort, released on January 20, 1992, by the US Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the House Republican Research Committee, asserted that by the end of 1991 there was a “98 percent certainty that Iran already had all [or virtually all] of the components required for two to three operational nuclear weapons [aerial bombs and SSM warheads] made with parts purchased in the ex-Soviet Moslem republics.”

    “I didn’t give these reports credibility at the time,” said Shai Feldman, director of Tel Aviv University’s Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. “It seemed like the kind of information that the Iranian opposition put out. There were specific queries made and everybody said there was no evidence of a warhead transfer.” But congressional sources and Israeli officials said Congress has been alarmed by the continuing reports of Russian aid to Iran’s nuclear and nonconventional program. The sources said that they are drafting legislation to stop the effort. In one Iranian document obtained by the Post, dated December 26, 1991, the deputy head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards tells Atomic Energy Agency head Rezi Amrullahi that “two war materiel of nuclear nature” had arrived from Russia and were being held by the guards. At the bottom of the document is a handwritten rebuke from a senior Iranian intelligence officer asking both officials not to write and send such documents to avoid leaks.

    In another document, dated January 2, 1992, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards official quotes an engineer identified as Turkan as saying that the nuclear warheads are being stored in the Lavizan military camp in the Teheran area. The engineer says that the warheads contain flaws in the safety mechanism and he is waiting for Russian experts to arrive and repair them. An April 3, 1992, document discusses the production of a solid fuel missile prototype, called Zalzal 300, completed in Lavizan which was soon to be ready for launch. US congressional experts said the Zalzal is a modification of the Chinese M-11 missile.

    The US government consultant said the Iranian government correspondence relayed to Israel is only a small portion of the hundreds of documents about the Iranian effort to obtain nuclear materials, including four nuclear warheads for the North Korean-developed No-Dong missile.

    The documents were obtained as US envoy Robert Gallucci held talks here with government and intelligence agency leaders on Russian aid to Iran’s ballistic missile program. “The government acts on priorities and at the top is the Iranian missile program,” an Israeli official said. Israeli officials said that both Jerusalem and Washington agree on the amount of progress achieved by Iran in developing a missile with a range of 1,300 kilometers, which is able to reach Israel.

    The disagreement is about whether Russia supports the technology transfer to Iran and whether Moscow is capable of stopping the flow. Israeli sources are said to have been impressed with Gallucci, who replaced Frank Wisner as US President Bill Clinton’s envoy to Moscow on the Iranian missile issue. A senior official said Gallucci’s appointment reflects the Clinton administration’s intention to intensify a campaign to stop the Russian aid to Iran’s missile program. This Israeli assessment, disputed in defense circles, has led to a decision by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to shelve efforts to lobby Congress to pass sanctions against Russia, the official said. He said Israel’s friends in Congress have asked Netanyahu’s government for advice and were told that Jerusalem was giving the White House more time to achieve results. “So, Congress wants to go forward and not us,” the official said. “Certainly, we aren’t pushing Congress. It doesn’t mean that we won’t do so in the future.”

  • Diplomats mislead press: IAEA denies reports that Iran blocked inspections

    “Iran blocked UN inspectors on test visit to nuclear site” headlined Agence France Press, after diplomats told it so. “Western diplomats have charged that Iran has a history of stalling on IAEA inspections.” That story ran widely, but the next day the IAEA said “There is no truth to [these] media reports … we have not been denied access at any time, including in the past few weeks” – the denial did not run very widely.

    The denial: UN watchdog denies Iran blocked nuke visit

    ABC Saturday, May 12, 2007. 7:00am (AEST)

    “There is no truth to media reports claiming that the IAEA was not able to get access to Natanz,” said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman Marc Vidricaire.

    “We have not been denied access at any time, including in the past few weeks. Normally we do not comment on such reports but this time we felt we had to clarify the matter,” he said.

    The disinformation: Iran blocked UN inspectors on test visit to nuclear site

    By Michael Adler AFP – Friday, May 11 08:02 am

    VIENNA (AFP) – Iran has blocked UN atomic experts on a first unannounced test inspection of an underground nuclear site where it enriches uranium, despite a pledge to allow such visits, diplomats told AFP.

    The watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency had in March told Iran to allow its inspectors to install surveillance cameras at the site in Natanz that is heavily bunkered against possible air strikes, but Tehran refused this and in return agreed to allow frequent, unannounced visits.

    A first test on April 21 of the agreement “was a total failure,” a diplomat in Vienna, home to the IAEA, said Thursday, adding that a successful unannounced inspection has not yet taken place.

    At stake is Iranian compliance with inspections by the IAEA, the verification arm of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the world’s basic agreement against the spread of atomic weapons.

    Iran is defying UN demands for it to stop enriching uranium, which makes fuel for civilian nuclear power reactors but can also produce the explosive core of atom bombs.

    The UN Security Council has imposed two rounds of limited sanctions on Iran because of this defiance and due to fears it is using what it says is a peaceful program to hide the development of nuclear weapons.

    The IAEA is to report to the Council on May 23 on Iran’s nuclear activities, and then meet on the matter in June.

    A negative IAEA report could lead to a third round of sanctions against Iran.

    “The Iranians did not let the IAEA inspectors into the halls where the cascades of centrifuges are,” the diplomat said about inspections at Natanz, referring to the production lines of centrifuges which enrich uranium.

    “So they couldn’t get details of what is going on there,” the diplomat said.

    “An undeclared visit should be fast, uncomplicated but the Iranians said they wanted to talk again about the terms of the visits.”

    Problems with inspections were confirmed by two other envoys in Vienna.

    Iranian and IAEA officials refused to comment.

    Another diplomat said the IAEA has made regular visits since then to the Natanz site, but not into the cascade hall and not unannounced inspections, and may try another surprise visit soon.

    A source close to the Iranians said they were still trying to determine how to arrange unannounced visits.

    Western diplomats have charged that Iran has a history of stalling on IAEA inspections.

    The IAEA had reported in April that Iran has assembled some 1,300 centrifuges Natanz in central Iran.

    A diplomat said there were now over 1,600 centrifuges functioning there, arrayed in 10 cascades of 164-centrifuges each.

    Each cascade is being fed with the uranium gas needed for enrichment.

    But the diplomat said the cascades were working “in slow motion” as the Iranians are afraid that setting them at top speed would cause them to break down.

    “The Iranians are working at having a large number of centrifuges running, rather than how efficient the process is,” the diplomat said.

    The diplomat said the Iranians were adding about one cascade of 164 centrifuges every 10 days.

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had announced in April that the Iran’s uranium enrichment work had reached an “industrial scale,” a stage that requires at least 3,000 centrifuges, but did not say how many centrifuges were working.

    Iran wants eventually to have over 50,000 centrifuges in Natanz, which would be enough to make some 20 atomic bombs a year.

    IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in February that cameras would be needed inside the cascade halls, and not outside as is already permitted, if Iran were running more than 500 centrifuges underground at Natanz in order to properly monitor the nuclear work.