Iran violates IAEA rules with enrichment: UN
UN Security Council members said they eventually would have to tackle the new situation with Iran, which has continued its uranium enrichment programme and been found to produce enough fissile material for an atomic bomb.
UN Security Council members said on Friday they eventually would have to tackle the new situation with Iran, which has continued its uranium enrichment programme and been found to produce enough fissile material for an atomic bomb.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna said in an updated report that the Tehran regime has underreported by a third the extent of its enrichment activities.
The IAEA said Iran has produced 1,110 kg of low-enriched uranium. Non-proliferation experts estimate that 1,000 to 1,700 kg are theoretically needed to enrich the material further for use in an atomic weapon.
"They are going on with the programme and not complying anymore with the IAEA's rules," French Ambassador Jean Maurive Ripert said at UN headquarters in New York. "We will have to deal with it."
Envoys from Japan and Britain said the 15-nation council is concerned by the new findings.
"Our main concern here at the UN is that Iran should abide by the UN Security Council resolutions, which it has singularly failed to do," British Ambassador John Sawers said.
The council has demanded that Iran end its uranium enrichment programme, end the construction of a heavy-water reactor and allow IAEA inspectors in there.
Sawers said Iran is making advances in mastering its capability to enrich uranium for military uses.
"What do have is proof that it (the programme) is not for civilian purposes because Iran has only one civilian nuclear power station run with nuclear fuel provided by Russia," Sawers said. "So what is the purposes of producing enriched uranium if not to stock it for other purposes."
The council had imposed sanctions on Iran for failing to stop its conversion activities, but the measures had no effect on that country.