IRAN: In a report due out today that is likely to trigger a showdown over sanctions, the UN's nuclear watchdog has demanded Iran urgently explain evidence that it may have secretly enriched uranium.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirms in its report that it detected highly enriched uranium in samples taken at a nuclear plant at Natanz, one of the sites the US claims Iran has been using for a covert nuclear weapons programme.
Iran has told the IAEA that the samples came from nuclear equipment that was contaminated when it was bought a decade ago for civilian purposes. But Tehran has not said who sold the equipment, only that it was purchased through an intermediary company.
Analysts said yesterday that the evidence pointed towards Pakistani companies selling Dutch designs for enrichment centrifuges.
Iran has also admitted carrying out uranium conversion experiments in the early 90s, producing uranium tetrafluoride, a halfway stage to the production of uranium hexafluoride, which is the form used in the enrichment process.
The report, delivered to IAEA member-states yesterday and expected to be made public today, is likely to be taken by Washington as backing for its argument that Iran should be declared in violation of its non-proliferation obligations and subjected to sanctions.
However, Ms Melissa Fleming, an IAEA spokeswoman, said the report did not offer conclusive proof of violations.
"It asks a lot more questions than it provides answers," Ms Fleming said.
"The investigation is no longer in mid-course but it is not there yet. Over the next several weeks and months a number of questions have to be answered," she said. - (Guardian Service)