Iran 'stonewalling weapons probe'

UN efforts to investigate allegations that Iran tried to make nuclear arms have run into a dead end, with Tehran steadfastly blocking efforts to probe the accusations, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

Iran is stonewalling an international nuclear weapons probe according to the IAEA Iran is stonewalling an international nuclear weapons probe, according to the IAEA

The conclusion was contained in an IAEA report released to the 35-nation IAEA board and the UN Security Council, which has already imposed three sets of sanctions because of Tehran's nuclear defiance.

"We've arrived at a gridlock," said a senior UN official, describing the document as "a progress report without progress." He demanded anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the restricted report.

The document also said that -- through uranium enrichment -- Tehran now has amassed a third of the amount of enriched uranium it would need to reprocess into the material serving as the fissile core of a nuclear weapon, should it choose to do so.

The US and its allies say Iran wants to develop its enrichment program for its weapons applications. But Tehran insists it seeks the technology only to create nuclear fuel, and IAEA oversight and inspections of the Islamic Republic's known enrichment program has not come up with any evidence that contradict what Tehran says.

The six-page report confirmed that Iran continues to expand its uranium enrichment program in defiance of three sets of UN Security Council sanctions imposed in attempts to force Tehran to mothball such activities.

The document said Iran was now either fully or partially operating 6,000 centrifuges at its cavernous underground facility at Natanz. Beyond those machines, which spin uranium gas into enriched uranium, it was testing 12 more advanced prototypes at its aboveground experimental site at Natanz, a city about 300 miles (500 kilometers) south of Tehran.

To date, Iran had enriched 480 kilograms -- about 1,000 pounds -- of low enriched uranium suitable for nuclear fuel, the report said. Asked to put that figure into context, UN officials said Tehran would need three times that amount to begin the process of enriching to the level needed to produce a nuclear weapon.

Running smoothly, 3,000 centrifuges could produce enough nuclear material for a bomb within 18 months, were they configured for that function.

Iran's refusal to end enrichment has been the main trigger for the Security Council sanctions and continues to be the overriding concern for Washington and others accusing Tehran of wanting to make a bomb.

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