VIENNA – The
U.N. nuclear agency on Wednesday acknowledged its renewed failure in
trying to probe suspicions that Tehran has worked secretly on atomic
arms, in a statement issued shortly after an Iranian general warned of a
pre-emptive strike against any nation that threatens Iran.
The double signs of defiance reflected
continued Iranian determination not to bow to demands that it defuse
suspicions about its nuclear activities despite rapidly growing
international sanctions imposed over its refusal to signal it is ready
to compromise.
With the International Atomic Energy Agency
already failing to dent Iranian stonewalling in talks that ended just
three weeks ago, hopes had been muted that the latest effort would be
any more successful even before the IAEA issued its statement.
The fact that the communique was issued
early Wednesday, shortly after midnight and just after the IAEA experts
left Tehran, reflected the urgency the agency attached to telling its
side of the story.
As the two-day IAEA visit was winding down,
Iranian officials sought to cast it in a positive light, with foreign
ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast telling reporters that
"cooperation with the agency continues and is at its best level."
Beyond differing with that view, the
language of the IAEA communique clearly -- if indirectly -- blamed
Tehran for the lack of progress.
"We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached," it quoted IAEA chief Yukiya Amano as saying.
The communique said that on both visits,
Iran did not grant requests by the IAEA mission to visit Parchin -- a
military site thought to be used for explosives testing related to
nuclear detonations, and cited Amano as calling this decision
"disappointing."
It also said that no agreement was reached
on how to begin "clarification of unresolved issues in connection with
Iran's nuclear programme, particularly those relating to possible
military dimensions."
The abortive trip was just the latest sign
of Iranian resolve to continue hard-line resistance in the face of
international pressure to curb its nuclear activities, despite sanctions
and U.S. and Israeli warnings of possible last-resort military action
should diplomacy fail.
Iran over the weekend announced that it will
stop selling oil to Britain and France in retaliation for a planned
European oil embargo this summer.
The move was mainly symbolic -- Britain and
France import almost no oil from Iran -- but it raised concerns that
Iran could take the same hard line with other European nations that use
more Iranian crude.
The European Union buys about 18 percent of
Iran's oil exports, though most of that comes from sales to just two
countries: Italy and Spain.
Iran flailed out again just hours before the
IAEA team left, with Gen. Mohammed Hejazi, who heads the military's
logistical wing, warning that Iran will "not wait for enemies to take
action against us."
"We will use all our means to protect our national interests," he told the semiofficial Fars news agency.
His comments followed Iran's announcement of
war games to practice protecting nuclear and other sensitive sites, the
latest military maneuver viewed as a message to the U.S. and Israel
that the Islamic Republic is ready both to defend itself and to
retaliate against an armed strike.
The official news agency IRNA said the
four-day air defense war games, dubbed "Sarallah," or "God's Revenge,"
were taking place in the south of the country and involve anti-aircraft
batteries, radar, and warplanes. The drill will be held over 73,000
square miles near the port of Bushehr, the site of Iran's lone nuclear
power plant.
Iran has held multiple air, land, and sea
maneuvers in recent months as tensions increase, while at the same time
continuing to deny any interest in nuclear weapons. It asserts that the
allegations of secret work on developing such arms are based on
fabricated U.S. and Israeli intelligence.
But Amano, the IAEA chief, outlined his
concerns in a 13-page summary late last year listing clandestine
activities that he said can either be used in civilian or military
nuclear programs, or "are specific to nuclear weapons."
Among these were indications that Iran has
conducted high-explosives testing to set off a nuclear charge at Parchin
-- the site the agency said Wednesday that the IAEA team was not
allowed to visit.
Other suspicions include computer modeling
of a core of a nuclear warhead and alleged preparatory work for a
nuclear weapons test and development of a nuclear payload for Iran's
Shahab 3 intermediate range missile -- a weapon that could reach Israel.
The IAEA team had hoped to talk to key
Iranian scientists suspected of working on the alleged weapons program,
break down opposition to their plans to inspect documents related to
nuclear work and secure commitments from Iranian authorities to allow
future visits.
Beyond denying any covert work on nuclear
arms, Iran also insists concerns that it will turn its uranium
enrichment program to making fissile warhead material are unfounded,
saying it is enriching uranium only to make nuclear fuel for peaceful
purposes such as producing energy.
But because of weapons fears, the U.N.
Security Council has imposed sanctions on Tehran in a failed attempt to
force it to stop enrichment.
More recently, the U.S., the European Union
and other Western allies have either tightened up their own sanctions or
rapidly put new penalties in place striking at the heart of Iran's oil
exports lifeline and its financial system.
Tehran's expanding enrichment activities at
its plant at Fordo, near the holy city of Qom, are of particular concern
for Israel -- which has warned it will not let Iran develop nuclear
arms -- because it is dug into a mountain and possibly resistant to
attack.
In interviews late last week, diplomats told
The Associated Press that Iran is poised to install thousands of
new-generation centrifuges at the cavernous facility. That would mean
that Iran would have the capability of enriching to weapons-grade level
much more quickly and efficiently that with its present, less efficient
mainstay machines.
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