A senior U.S. envoy said Iran's recently announced willingness to answer International Atomic Energy Agency questions about is nuclear program is nothing more than a distraction and would not stop the U.N. Security Council from imposing additional sanctions.
"Iran is clearly trying to take the attention from its continued development of bomb-making capabilities, and I don't think the Security Council will be distracted," said Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency. "We are continuing to move forward with other members of the Security Council on a third resolution."
Schulte was responding to news that Iran and the Vienna-based IAEA — the U.N. nuclear watchdog — had reached an agreement on a timetable to respond to lingering questions over Tehran's controversial nuclear activities.
"If Iran's leaders truly want the world's trust, they would … start to cooperate fully and unconditionally and suspend activities of international concerns," said Schulte, alluding to council demands that Tehran freeze its uranium enrichment program and stop construction of a plutonium-producing reactor.
Full Iranian cooperation with the agency's nuclear probe is only one of the council's demands, and Schulte said Tehran must also meet all others to avoid new U.N. punishment.
Of most concern to the international community are activities that could lead to the making of nuclear weapons — enrichment, which can produce both fuel and the core of warheads, and the building of the reactor that when finished will produce plutonium — also weapons material.
"These activities are not necessary for peaceful purposes but are necessary to build a bomb," Schulte said.
Iranian and IAEA officials announcing their agreement in Tehran on Tuesday did not elaborate or provide more details, including whether Tehran was ready to answer all outstanding questions.
