Batoul Wehbe
19/02/2010 Iran Supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei dismissed as "baseless" on Friday a leaked report expressing concern that it might have been trying to develop a nuclear warhead saying that Iran does not believe in and is not seeking an atomic weapon, state television reported.
"Recently some Western and US officials have been repeating some outdated and nonsensical comments that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons," Imam Khamenei told commanders at the launch of Iran's first domestically made destroyer. "The West's accusations are baseless because our religious beliefs bar us from using such weapons ... we do not believe in atomic weapons and are not seeking that."
Iran's envoy to the UN atomic watchdog Ali Asghar Soltanieh said the documents cited in the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency were "fabricated and thus do not have any validity", the Fars news agency reported.
"I have also said many times that when they showed these documents to us none of the documents had any confidential or secret stamps on them," Soltanieh said. "And thus it was proved that all of the documents have been fabricated and are baseless and thus do not have any validity. "The issue of the missile or explosives has nothing to do with the IAEA's charter and function," he added.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano claimed that Iran might have been trying to develop a nuclear warhead in his first report to the watchdog's board of governors on Thursday. "The information available to the agency ... raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile," Amano wrote.
The language of the report was much more blunt than that used by Amano's Egyptian predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei, who stepped down at the end of November.
In 2007, a US intelligence report said Iran halted such research in 2003.
Soltanieh also talking to the ISNA news agency repeated Tehran's stance that Iran's nuclear program is a peaceful one and that this issue has been pointed out in the report. "Amano like ElBaradei has confirmed that Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful and Iran has not deviated from its peaceful path," he said. "The Islamic republic has repeatedly said it will never halt its peaceful nuclear activities nor stop its cooperation with the agency," he added.
"Repeated requests by the IAEA for further inspection are not acceptable for us. Iran will neither cooperate beyond the IAEA safeguards nor will it carry out demands of the United Nations resolutions," he said. Soltanieh said Tehran's reasons for not doing so are that "Iran considers these resolutions to be contrary to international law."
In light of the powers campaign against Iran, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said that the report confirms Germany's "great concerns" towards Iran nuclear program. "The report of the IAEA ... confirms the great concerns that the German government has had for a long time about Iran's nuclear program," spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told a regular government briefing. "The persistent defiance...of United Nations resolutions and Tehran's continuation of a dangerous nuclear policy are forcing the international community to pursue further comprehensive sanctions in New York against the regime in Tehran."
Germany's comments came as Russia's Foreign Ministry said that Iran must more actively cooperate with the IAEA to convince the world that its nuclear program is peaceful, Interfax news agency reported. "Tehran must be more active in its cooperation with the IAEA and widen it," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted as saying at a briefing in Moscow.
US officials said that while the report showed Iran had technical difficulties, its IAEA co-operation was declining. Senior administration officials in Washington said Iran's pattern of behavior was "disturbing".
One official said Iran's statements that its nuclear programme was peaceful were becoming less credible, adding that it was becoming clear this was a country seeking nuclear weapons.
A senior Obama administration official said the report shows that there were "serious technical difficulties that are slowing down the nuclear clock". The US is keen for the UN Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran. "We always said that if Iran failed to live up to those international obligations, that there would be consequences," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
France urged world powers to act with "determination" against Iran’s program. "This report confirms precisely the very serious concerns of the international community" over Iran's nuclear program, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters. "It shows how urgent it is to act with determination to respond to Iran's lack of cooperation."
Earlier Friday, Israeli President Shimon Peres said that Israel must form a broad international coalition to face the “Iranian nuclear threat”, adding that it wasn't a question of who has nuclear weapons but rather what it intends to do with that arsenal.
Speaking at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in occupied Jerusalem, Peres said that to "curb Iran's nuclear ambitions Israel must create a broad coalition of nations that can face the Iranian threat."
"The question isn't who has the bomb, but who has executioners," Peres said, adding that "the Iranians are executioners who are trying to get a bomb, and it’s time we called the executioner by his name, and call a dictator a dictator.”
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