IAEA to make fresh Iran report on Jun 8

Vienna, June 6: The International Atomic Energy Agency will issue a fresh report on Iran's atomic fuel programme today, an IAEA diplomat said, two days after major powers presented Tehran with incentives to scrap the work.

''The report will be clear, factual, short, without an assessment (as to Iran's intentions),'' the diplomat told Reuters. The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors will convene on Monday, in part to debate Iran's uranium-enrichment drive.

Tehran's chief negotiator Ali Larijani said proposals on Tuesday handed over by six world powers to end a stand-off over Iran's nuclear activity had positive points but also some ''ambiguities'' that must be removed.

The proposals, which have not been made public but include sweeteners and penalties, seek to persuade Iran to abandon enriching uranium, which the West fears will be used to build atomic bombs. Tehran says its nuclear aims are purely civilian.

The most recent IAEA report on Iran issued on April 28 found that Tehran had ignored a U.N. Security Council call for it to stop enriching uranium. It said Iran had not come clean over suspicions of military links with nuclear work and diplomats said in the past week Tehran was still not doing so.

Three weeks ago, diplomats said U.N. inspectors had found new traces of very highly enriched uranium (HEU) on nuclear equipment in Iran, deepening suspicions Tehran may still be concealing the full extent of its atomic enrichment programme.

Another IAEA diplomat said on Tuesday the pending report was unlikely to contain significant news but could update information on HEU contamination and two more cascades of 164 centrifuge enrichment machines Iran began building in April.

With its first 164-centrifuge pilot cascade, Iran enriched a small amount of uranium to the level required for nuclear power plant fuel for the first time two months ago.

''There won't be any big revelations, in part because Iran is not eager to give us any more information now. They're stalling to see how negotiations with the big powers develop,'' the diplomat added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Reuters

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