Watchdog warns of nuclear 'stalemate' with Iran

The UN nuclear watchdog is locked in a “stalemate” with Iran over the country’s suspect nuclear programme, the agency’s chief said today, pressing Tehran to answer lingering questions about its atomic ambitions.

Flashing fresh defiance, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his government will neither halt uranium enrichment nor negotiate over its nuclear rights, although it’s ready to sit and talk with world powers over unspecified “global concerns.”

“From our point of view, Iran’s nuclear issue is over,” President Ahmadinejad declared in Tehran.

In a statement to the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency - which is taking a hard new look at Iran and Syria this week – Mohamed ElBaradei urged the Islamic Republic to “substantively re-engage” with the international community.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful. The United States and key allies contend it is covertly trying to build a bomb.

This week’s meeting in Vienna, and the upcoming UN General Assembly, could set the stage for a toughening of sanctions against Iran for its continued defiance of Western demands that it suspend uranium enrichment. Tehran already has defied three sets of UN Security Council sanctions.

US President Barack Obama and European allies have given Iran until the end of September to take up an offer of nuclear talks with six world powers and trade incentives should it suspend uranium enrichment activities. If not, Iran could face harsher punitive sanctions.

Mr ElBaradei today said he hoped such dialogue would begin as soon as possible, and he urged Iran “to respond positively to the recent US initiative.”

Mr ElBaradei acknowledged that Iran has provided IAEA inspectors access to a research reactor at Arak and has tightened security at its main nuclear facility in the southern city of Natanz.

But he said Iran is still enriching uranium, which can be used for nuclear fuel or – if enriched to a high enough level – can produce fissile material for a warhead.

“On all other issues relevant to Iran’s nuclear program ... there is (a) stalemate,” Mr ElBaradei told the IAEA board.

“Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities or its work on heavy water-related projects as required by the Security Council, nor has Iran implemented the Additional Protocol,” which would open its nuclear facilities to unannounced and more intrusive inspections.

“It is essential that Iran substantively re-engage with the agency to clarify and bring to closure all outstanding issues,” he said.

“Iran needs to respond fully to all the questions raised by the agency in order to exclude the possibility of there being military dimensions to its nuclear programme,” he added.

Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said his country has provided the IAEA with all the information it needs and that it was now up to the agency to act.