Iran Says It Did Not Fail to Abide by Nuclear Agreements

June 19, 2003 - 0:0
TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) - Iran said Wednesday it has not failed to abide by international agreements on reporting to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with regard to the nuclear materials used in its nuclear programs.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has fulfilled it obligations under all provisions of the NPT (the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)," the Iranian representative to the IAEA, Ali Salehi, told a high level meeting at the IAEA.

The IAEA is studying a report prepared by its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, that said: Iran has failed to meet its obligations under its (NPT) Safeguards Agreement.

Salehi told the agency's 35-nation board of governors the report "could have been crafted in a more partial, fair and balanced manner".

The "awkward directives issued at certain influential capitals on the form, the content and the final conclusion and judgment of the report," Salehi said, alluding to the United States that pressured the IAEA to report Iran’s violation of the IAEA agreements. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States wanted the IAEA board "to express their concerns about the nuclear program."

Iran is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the global pact aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons.

"Iran has fulfilled its obligations under all provisions of the NPT," he said, adding, nuclear weapons is not on the agenda of Iran’s security doctrine. Salehi said: "Iran considers the acquiring, development and use of nuclear weapons inhuman, immoral and against its very basic principles."

"The language of force and threat will be futile," he said, referring to the final report on Iran which may be released on Thursday.

Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Spokesman Seyed Khalil Mousavi told the Mehr News Agency on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran has not failed to report its nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “Contrary to the IAEA Director General Mohammad ElBradei's comments, Iran has not failed to fulfill its commitments in reporting to the IAEA,” he said. “It is a clear issue.”

"As our country's representative in the IAEA has announced, there is no disagreement between the two sides, there is only some misinterpretation of the text of the agreement," Mousavi said.

Coming under pressure from U.S. disinformation campaign, the IAEA urged Iran to sign an additional protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The Islamic Republic maintains that it has every right to benefit from atomic energy and that it is not following a policy of aggression.

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has said that Iran will sign the additional protocols provided the other NPT members fulfill their commitments and provide it with the necessary technology for its nuclear programs which are solely for peaceful purposes. Salehi said: "The crux of the report in front of us deals only with a small amount of 0.13 effective kilogram of natural uranium that we imported in 1991."

"My country declared the material to the agency and it is now under its full safeguards," said.