Iran disputes UN inspectors claim
A day after UN inspectors claimed to have detected enriched uranium in its air samples, an indignant Iran on Saturday brushed aside the assertions as questionable.
Besides disputing the claim, Iran also demanded that the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) come out with facts and clear the issue.
“The issue that samples taken contain enriched uranium is very questionable and we are expecting this issue to become clear in our talks with the IAEA,” Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Resa Asefi said.
UN inspectors on Friday had claimed to have found enriched uranium in environmental samples taken in Iran.
If true, the inspectors’ claim could be assumed to be proof of Tehran’s clandestine attempts to enrich uranium for its nuclear weapons programme, without informing the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency.
Iran insisted the IAEA has not raised the issue of the sample results yet with Tehran.
“It is the responsibility of the IAEA to make comments on this issue, not diplomats who do not have exact information on such things,” Asefi said.
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“Any media reporting on sample results would be pure speculation” –IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei |
Dubbed by the United States as part of an “axis of evil,” Iran has in recent months found itself increasingly being accused of pursuing a hidden nuclear agenda.
Despite Iran’s repeated clarifications that its nuclear programme was only aimed at generating nuclear power, the US accuses it of trying to build a nuclear arsenal.
But as the controversy over the samples raged, IAEA remained non-committal and said the sample results were being further analysed.
“Any media reporting on sample results would be pure speculation,” said IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.