TEHRAN (Agencies)
Iran said on Saturday the U.N. atomic watchdog had confirmed its nuclear program was peaceful and vowed to resist political pressure to change it while insisting it would continue enriching uranium.
"Fortunately the current IAEA report has been more positive than the earlier ones due to the new approach of the Islamic republic," the head of Iran's nuclear energy organization Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by state television's news website as saying.
" Fortunately the current IAEA report has been more positive than the earlier ones due to the new approach of the Islamic republic " Ali Akbar Salehi The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Friday said Iran had slowed its expansion of uranium enrichment and met some demands for transparency but added that allegations Tehran had researched how to build atom bombs looked credible.
The IAEA report will form the basis for talks on Sept. 2 of six major powers to look into harsher U.N. sanctions against Iran over its enrichment of uranium which the West fears is intended for making nuclear weapons.
The West believes Iran wants to produce atomic bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear fuel program but Tehran rejects the charge saying its nuclear work is a peaceful means to generate electricity. |
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Uranium enrichment " This report mentions that Iran has not halted its uranium enrichment which we consider to be our right " Ali Asghar Soltanieh "The report emphasized ... that Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful," Iran's envoy to IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh told the semi-official Fars news agency.
"It shows Iran has continued its cooperation with the agency ... but at the same time will not accept any political pressure to take measures beyond its legal commitments," he said.
"This report mentions that Iran has not halted its uranium enrichment which we consider to be our right," said Salehi, who is also an Iranian vice president.
IAEA inspectors said that while Iran is still installing uranium-enriching centrifuges at Natanz, the number of machines actually up and running has been reduced.
A total of 4,592 centrifuges were actively enriching uranium, compared with 4,920 at the time of the IAEA's last report in June. However the number of machines installed had been increased by around 1,000 to 8,308. |
