Iran to scale back UN nuke cooperation

IRAN will scale back its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog in response to the agency’s October 31 deadline for Tehran to prove its atomic programmes are peaceful, Iran’s representative to the agency has said.

Ali Akbar Salehi said on Iranian television on Monday that Iran had been allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency more leeway than required under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty "to show our good will and transparency".

He said that they had allowed IAEA inspectors to take environmental samples and visit non-nuclear sites.

"This has been beyond our obligations, but from now on we will act according to the current regulations," Mr Salehi said.

In August, Iran allowed inspectors to visit a site it deemed non-nuclear the Kalay-e-Electric Co in west Tehran. In June, inspectors were turned away from the company when they came to take environmental samples.

Iran allegedly has tested centrifuges, which are used to process uranium, at the site.

The United States has accused Iran of running a clandestine nuclear weapons programme and wants the IAEA to declare Tehran in violation of the treaty.

A recent IAEA report to its board noted that traces of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium were found at an Iranian nuclear facility, and said tests run by Iran made little sense unless the country was pursuing nuclear weaponry.

Tehran insists its nuclear programmes are designed to generate electricity and that its equipment was "contaminated" with enriched uranium by a previous owner.

The IAEA has pressed Iran to give details of its nuclear programme and to sign an additional protocol letting agency inspectors conduct in-depth checks of nuclear facilities.

IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the agency did not yet have an official response to Iran's announcement. However, he stressed that the agency still hoped Iran would cooperate.

"We have called on Iran to provide accelerated cooperation in order for us to quickly get to the bottom of the outstanding questions surrounding their nuclear programme," Mr Gwozdecky said.

However, a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, conceded that Iran's announcement indicated it was not prepared to give the agency greater access to its nuclear sites and it could become even more difficult for the IAEA to get answers.

"If Iran has decided to do only the minimum, it doesn't sound like the accelerated cooperation the IAEA had called on it to provide," the diplomat said.

Iran has said repeatedly it would agree to unfettered inspections if it was granted access to advanced nuclear technology as provided for under the nonproliferation treaty. Tehran says that the US administration isis keeping Iran from getting access to that technology.

The IAEA's board of governors set the October deadline on September 12. The deadline was agreed to on the basis of a report by the director general of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei.

On Monday, Mr Salehi criticised the decision to set a deadline but did not say whether Iran would try to meet it.

"Many members of the IAEA were surprised that despite Iran's very good cooperation with the agency, some countries were pushing for a deadline," he said.

"Irrespective of whether we oppose or agree to the deadline, setting a deadline from the logical point of view is unacceptable. Mr. ElBaradei was also opposed to the deadline."