- APAn aerial view of Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz.
VIENNA – Iran
has rapidly ramped up production of higher-grade enriched uranium over
the last four months, the U.N. nuclear agency said Friday, in a
confidential report that feeds concerns about how quickly the Islamic
republic could produce an atomic bomb.
The report by the International Atomic
Energy Agency also said Iran had failed to give a convincing explanation
about a quantity of missing uranium metal. Diplomats say the amount
unaccounted for is large enough to be used for experiments in arming a
nuclear missile.
Iran insists it is not interested in nuclear
weapons and says its activities are meant either to generate energy or
to be used for research. But the report contained little assurances the
country's activities are purely peaceful.
Instead, it also confirmed that two IAEA
missions to Tehran within less than a month had failed to dent Iran's
refusal to assist an IAEA probe of suspicions that the country has been
secretly working on aspects of a nuclear weapons program.
The confidential report obtained by The
Associated Press said the agency continues to have "serious concerns
regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program."
The report was issued to the IAEA's
35-nation board and the U.N. Security Council as the latest update on
what the agency knows and what it suspects about Iran's nuclear program.
It comes amid heightened tensions caused by
Iran's refusal to reign in nuclear activities that much of the world
fears could be redirected toward a weapons program. A rapid series of
sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and others imposed on
Tehran have only increased acrimony without any sign that Iran is ready
to compromise.
Instead, it has retaliated by imposing oil
embargoes on Britain and France and threatening other European nations
that act against it with similar punishment.
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