UN nuclear agency to discuss Iran, Syria

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-07 14:33

VIENNA: The International Atomic Energy Agency meets Monday for talks that will likely center on the UN watchdog's deadlocked nuclear probes of Iran and Syria.

The basis for the closed session of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, scheduled to last several days, are two recent agency assessments. One accuses Iran of continuing to enrich uranium and refusing to clear up lingering questions about possible military dimensions to its nuclear program.

Another chides Syria for not fully cooperating on efforts to settle inquiries about whether it was trying to build a nuclear complex at a desert site bombed by Israel in 2007.

Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But the US and others contend the country is trying to build an atomic weapon. Syria denies hiding a nuclear program.

Iran has defied three sets of UN Security Council sanctions and has bristled at the agency's latest report. On Friday, Iranian envoy Ali Ashgar Soltanieh accused Washington of using "forged documents" to make its case that Tehran is trying to build a bomb. In a letter to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, Soltanieh also criticized Britain and France.

The agency's latest assessment did acknowledge that Iran has been producing nuclear fuel at a slower rate and has allowed UN inspectors broader access to its main nuclear complex in the southern city of Natanz and to a reactor in Arak.

But it cautioned that there are "a number of outstanding issues which give rise to concerns and which need to be clarified to exclude the existence of possible military dimensions."

Over the next five days, board members are also expected to discuss nuclear security, measures to protect against nuclear terrorism and pay tribute to ElBaradei, whose term ends November 30.

The IAEA's board of governors generally meets five times a year.