WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States Tuesday criticized Iran for its ”continued failure” to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, after a new report by the agency said Iran was still refusing to halt uranium enrichment.
”We’re obviously studying the report, but the key point is that it underscores Iran’s continued failure to comply with its international nuclear obligations and also a sustained lack of cooperation with the IAEA,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
The IAEA’s restricted report, a copy of which was obtained in Vienna by AFP, said Iran was still uncooperative after nearly eight years of attempting to determine if its nuclear program is military or, as Tehran insists, peaceful in its objectives.
The report demands full access to Iran’s nuclear facilities, equipment and related documents, and said its uranium enrichment activities inexplicably came to a halt at least one day earlier this month, amid rumors it encountered technical problems.
The nine-page document has been circulated to IAEA member states and will be discussed by the agency’s 35-member board of governors at the beginning of December.
Iran is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, which is at the center of fears about Tehran’s atomic ambitions.
Iran and the six world powers involved in nuclear negotiations — the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — have agreed to return to the negotiating table for the first time since the talks stalled in October 2009.
The negotiations will likely resume on December 5 in Geneva, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Monday.