Iran give UN papers about warhead design - report

Iran has given the International Atomic Energy Agency sensitive documents that appear linked to nuclear warhead designs – the latest attempt by Tehran to stave off being reported to the UN Security Council, diplomats divulged today.

The diplomats told The Associated Press that 1 1/2 pages describing how to cast fissile uranium into the hemispherical shape of warheads were given IAEA inspectors last week.

At the same time, the UN agency presented Iran with intelligence – provided by the US – that suggests Tehran has been working on nuclear weapons, and asked for its response, said the diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for revealing the confidential information.

Late last year, inspectors saw the document that apparently showed how to mold highly enriched grade uranium into the core of warheads late, and it figured in a November report by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Initial reports said the UN nuclear watchdog agency was given the documents at that time but the diplomats said last Friday that Tehran handed them over only last week in a show of co-operation meant to head off increasing international consensus on reporting Iran to the UN Security Council over suspicions that its nuclear activities might be a cover for developing weapons.

The document was given to Iran by members of the nuclear black market network, the IAEA said in its November report. It showed how to cast “enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms.”

Iran has claimed it did not ask for the document but was given it anyway as part of other black market purchases.

Separately, American intelligence – revealed last year, based on information found on a laptop computer reportedly smuggled out of Iran – suggested that Tehran’s scientists were working on details of nuclear weapons, including missile trajectories and ideal altitudes for exploding warheads.

The diplomats said the US recently declassified the information and passed it on to the IAEA, which, in turn, forwarded it to Iran and asked for an explanation. Washington’s co-operation with the agency was part of its attempt to prove that Iran was interested in making weapons, said one of the diplomats who is familiar with the IAEA probe.

The developments in the fast-moving Iranian nuclear story were revealed just hours after a surprising agreement by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to advise that Iran be hauled before the powerful body over its disputed nuclear programme.

China and Russia, longtime allies and trading partners of Iran, agreed to a statement that calls on the IAEA to transfer the Iran dossier to the Security Council – the start of a protracted process that could end in sanctions for Tehran.

The IAEA’s 35-nation board meets in Vienna on Thursday. Diplomats accredited to the agency said that with opinion leaders Russia and China on board, most - maybe all – of the board nations would likely approve Security Council involvement. Past referral attempts had run into stiff opposition from some influential board members.

Though the US, Britain and France have been pressing to hand Iran’s case to the Security Council, it had been unclear whether China and Russia would support such a move until the decision was reached early Friday in London.

The foreign ministers from the five nations said, however, that even if formally asked by the IAEA board this week to get involved, the Security Council should wait until March to take up the Iran case – after a formal report from the atomic agency on Tehran’s activities. That puts off any immediate likelihood of sanctions.

Support for Security Council involvement grew after Iran broke IAEA seals at a uranium enrichment plant on January 10 and said it would resume small-scale uranium enrichment – a process that can produce material for either nuclear reactors or bombs.

Iran warned against attempts to report it to the Security Council, with chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani saying such a move would not be constructive and would mark “the end of diplomacy.”

In another concession, IAEA inspectors last week were allowed access to the northern Tehran’s Lavizan-Shian site – believed to be the repository of equipment bought by the Iranian military that could be used in a nuclear weapons programme.

The US alleges Iran had conducted high-explosive tests that could have a bearing on developing nuclear weapons at the site.

The US State Department said in 2004 that Lavizan’s buildings had been dismantled and topsoil had been removed in attempts to hide nuclear weapons-related experiments.

The agency subsequently confirmed that the site had been razed.