Iran has signaled that it will no longer cooperate with UN experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna who probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work. The announcement by Iranian vice-president Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, who also heads his country's Atomic Energy Agency, comes just five days after Tehran rejected demands from six world powers that it halt uranium enrichment and cooperate with the IAEA. Iran, which is obligated under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty not to develop nuclear arms, raised suspicions about its intentions when it admitted in 2002 that it had run a secret nuclear program for nearly two decades in violation of this commitment.
Officials say that among the evidence given to the IAEA are what seem to be Iranian draft plans to refit missiles with nuclear warheads; explosives tests that could be used to develop a nuclear detonator; and a drawing showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads. There are also questions about links between Iran's military and civilian nuclear facilities. On Thursday, Aghazadeh appeared to signal that his country was no longer prepared even to discuss the issue with the IAEA. Investigating such allegations "is outside the domain of the agency," he said after meeting with IAEA director-general Mohammed ElBaradei in Vienna. Any further queries on the issue would be dealt with "in another way," he said, without going into detail.
According to a report by the 'Associated Press' which quotes an unnamed senior diplomat, Tehran's intransigence is partly owed to anger over a multimedia presentation by IAEA deputy director-general Olli Heinonen to the agency's 35 board members based on intelligence about the alleged weapons work. Tehran dismisses the suspicions of the US and allies, and Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday again vowed that his country would not "retreat one iota" from pursuing uranium enrichment.
Meanwhile, the US envoy to the IAEA in Vienna, Gregory Schulte, said that Iran would be wrong to believe it will be "off the hook" during the transition to a new US administration in the Fall. "One thing we all have to worry about is ... that somehow the Iranian leadership may think they are off the hook for a period of time," Schulte said. "What they need to understand through our considered diplomacy is that they are not off the hook," he told reporters.
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