- (AFP) -- The UN nuclear watchdog said that it stood by
its report on Iran's nuclear program despite US criticism it had failed
to say the Islamic Republic was trying to make atomic weapons.
-
- "We stand by the report," International Atomic
Energy Agency spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told AFP about a 29-page-document
IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei gave to the agency's 35-nation
board of governors Monday.
-
- Gwozdecky refused to comment further, saying the report
was "a classified document and will be considered at next week's board
meeting" that will review Iran's compliance with international nuclear
safeguards.
-
- The report accused Iran of covert nuclear activities
over the past 20 years, including making plutonium, but said there was
as yet no evidence it was trying to build an atomic bomb, according to
a copy obtained by AFP.
-
- John Bolton, under secretary of state for arms control
and international security, said Wednesday in Washington the IAEA's conclusion
flew in the face of established facts. He stopped short of directly criticizing
ElBaradei.
-
- "After extensive documentation of Iran's denials
and deceptions over an 18-year period and a long litany of serious violations
of Iran's commitments to the IAEA, the report nonetheless concluded that
'no evidence' had been found of an Iranian nuclear weapons program,"
he said.
-
- "I must say that the report's assertion is simply
impossible to believe," he said in a text released by the State Department.
-
- Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected
by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence
you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any
way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the
prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
|
