A REPORT from the UN nuclear watchdog agency found Iran to be generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear past, but the US and Britain said Tehran's revelations were inadequate and urged new UN sanctions.
Washington and London's call yesterday for a third round of Security Council penalties was also based on the finding in the International Atomic Energy Agency report that Tehran continued to ignore council demands to freeze uranium enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms.
And the agency said it still could not rule out that Iran had a secret weapons program because of restrictions Tehran slapped on its inspectors two years ago.
"We believe that selective cooperation is not good enough," said White House press secretary Dana Perino, in calling for new sanctions.
Britain's Foreign Office said that "if Iran wants to restore trust in its program, it must come clean on all outstanding issues without delay." It also said Tehran must restore broader and stronger inspection rights to IAEA teams and mothball its enrichment activities to avoid new sanctions.
But top Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili said the report shows that such penalties would be "illegal action," adding that Iran has answered all the questions by the IAEA and made "good progress" in cooperating with it.
In light of the IAEA report, "many accusations are now baseless," Jalili said, referring to US assertions that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
"Those powers who base their accusations on this I hope will reconsider what they say," he said.
Much of the 10-page report made available to The Associated Press focused on the history of Iran's black-market procurements and past development of its enrichment technology — and the agency appeared to be giving Tehran a pass on that issue, repeatedly saying it concludes that "Iran's statements are consistent with … information available to the agency."
