IRAN: International weapons inspectors in Iran late last week were shown a network of sophisticated machinery to enrich uranium, increasing concerns that Tehran is making progress in developing a nuclear weapons programme, the New York Times reported yesterday.
The site in question, near the north-western city of Natanz, was visited on Friday by Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who was in Iran to assess the status of its nuclear programme.
It was the first time UN inspectors had visited the installation, according to the newspaper.
During the visit to the Natanz site, inspectors found a small network of centrifuges for enriching uranium and learned that Iran had components to make a significant number of additional centrifuges, the newspaper wrote, quoting US and international officials.
Based on their intelligence, US officials believe Natanz is part of a long-suspected nuclear weapons programme, has benefited from Pakistani assistance and is far more advanced than Iraq's efforts.
Officials told the New York Times that Iran's goal is to mine or purchase uranium, process the ore and enrich it to a purity suitable for making weapons.
Tehran insists that its goal is to make fuel for a civilian nuclear power programme, and it maintains that it is opening its plant in Natanz to the IAEA to demonstrate its peaceful aims.
The report comes as Dr ElBaradei on Saturday welcomed signs of greater transparency from Iran over a nuclear power programme which has aroused great suspicion in Washington.
But ElBaradei stressed Iran could only dispel doubts by signing up to the International Atomic Energy Agency's "Additional Protocol" to allow inspectors freer access to nuclear sites with little prior warning. - (AFP)