AFP, Vienna, Sept 15, 2008 (excerpts) – The UN atomic watchdog and Iran are “in gridlock” over allegations that Iran’s nuclear activities have a military aspect, a senior official close to the IAEA said Monday.
“On this particular issue, we’ve arrived at a gridlock,” the official said, referring to allegations that Iran conducted studies into making nuclear warheads.
The latest report comes after repeated talks between IAEA deputy chief Olli Heinonen and Iranian officials in Tehran in August.
In its latest Iran report published in May, the IAEA accused Tehran of withholding key information on alleged attempts to make nuclear arms.
Meanwhile, Iran’s news agency IRNA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh Attar as saying in late August that Iran was operating 4,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges and installing another 3,000.
Enrichment is a process by which low-grade uranium is refined into fuel that can power reactors but that, at highly enriched levels, can also produce weapons-grade material.
In May, the IAEA said Tehran was operating 3,500 centrifuges in Natanz, a huge underground complex in central Iran.
Tehran, which is already under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to freeze enrichment, risks further sanctions for failing to give a clear response to an incentives package offered by six world powers in return for a halt to the sensitive work.