UN atomic agency report says some secret Iran experiments are 'specific to nucle

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UN atomic agency report says some secret Iran experiments are 'specific to

nuclear weapons'

By Jahn, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 30 minutes ago.

VIENNA - The U.N. nuclear atomic energy agency said Tuesday for the first time

that Iran is suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose is

the development of nuclear arms.

The report is the strongest sign yet that Iran seeks to build a nuclear arsenal,

despite claims to the contrary. With Israel threatening a military response, the

report opens the way for a new confrontation between the West and Iran.

In Washington, officials said the report confirms U.S. suspicions about the

military nature of Iran's program and that the Obama administration is

considering pressuring Iran with additional sanctions, if it fails to answer

questions posed by the new information.

In its latest report on Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency outlines

the sum of its knowledge on the Islamic Republic's alleged secret nuclear

weapons work, including:

—Clandestine procurement of equipment and design information needed to make such

arms;

—High explosives testing and detonator development to set off a nuclear charge;

—Computer modeling of a core of a nuclear warhead;

—Preparatory work for a nuclear weapons test, and

—Developing and mounting a nuclear payload onto its Shahab 3 intermediate range

missile — a weapon that can reach Israel, Iran's arch foe.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said there is a government directive not

to comment until Israel has studied the report in depth.

But ahead of the report's release, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned of

a possible Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear program.

He told Israel Radio that he did not expect any new U.N. sanctions on Tehran to

persuade it to stop its nuclear defiance, adding: We continue to recommend to

our friends in the world and to ourselves, not to take any option off the

table. "

The " all options on the table " phrase is often used by Israeli politicians to

mean a military assault, and Israeli government members have engaged in

increased saber rattling recently suggesting that an attack was likely a more

effective way to stop Iran's nuclear program than continued diplomacy.

Iran's official IRNA news agency dismissed the IAEA report, saying it " repeats

the past claims by the U.S. and the Zionist regime, what was rejected in the

past report of the agency. "

The IRNA commentary said: 'The head of the agency has included worthless

comments and pictures provided by the intelligence services in the report. " It

said past inspections by the agency proved what was mentioned as a large steel

container, which the IAEA believes is used for nuclear arms-related high

explosives tests, were only " metal-constructed toilets. "

In Moscow, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it would not comment on the report

until it had time to study it. " Time is needed to study it carefully, " the

ministry said in a statement issued shortly before the IAEA report was released.

" The analysis should be carried out in a calm atmosphere because it is important

to figure out whether there really are new, and indeed trustworthy, facts that

confirm the suspicions that there are military components in the Iranian nuclear

program, or whether we're talking about the intentional and counterproductive

exacerbation of emotions, " the ministry said.

While some of the suspected secret nuclear work outlined in the IAEA annex could

also be used for peaceful purposes, " others are specific to nuclear weapons, "

said the confidential report obtained by The Associated Press.

Some of the information contained in the annex was new — including evidence of a

large metal chamber at a military site for nuclear-related explosives testing.

The bulk, however, was a compilation and expansion of alleged work already

partially revealed by the agency.

But a senior diplomat familiar with the report said its significance lay in its

comprehensiveness, thereby reflecting that Iran apparently had engaged in all

aspects of testing that were needed to develop such a weapon.

Also significant was the agency's decision to share most of what it knows or

suspect about Iran's secret work with the 35-nation IAEA board and the U.N.

Security Council after being stonewalled by Tehran in its attempts to probe such

allegations.

Copies of the report went to board members and the council, which has imposed

four sets of U.N. sanction on Tehran for refusing to stop activities that could

be used to make a nuclear weapon and refusing to co-operate with IAEA attempts

to fully understand its nuclear program.

The agency said the annex was based on more than 1,000 pages of intelligence and

other information forwarded by more than 10 nations and material gathered by the

IAEA itself.

____

Correspondents Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Lynn Berry in Moscow and Ian Deitch in

Jerusalem contributed to this report.