A report released by the UN nuclear watchdog on Friday has vindicated Iran’s nuclear programme and left no justification for any UN Security Council sanctions, top government officials said on Saturday.
A group of hard-line students also gathered in central Tehran to celebrate what they said was Iran’s victory against US-led allegations that Tehran’s nuclear programme was aimed at building nuclear weapons, distributing sweets to passers-by in the streets.
The 11-page report by the International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said all major past issues surrounding Iran’s nuclear activities had been fully resolved or were no longer outstanding at this stage, repeatedly saying IAEA’s findings are consistent with information available to the agency and explanations provided by Iran.
The US, however, said on Friday that the report actually strengthens the case for additional sanctions because it said Iran failed to cooperate fully with UN investigators and left key questions about its nuclear past unanswered.
The IAEA report said Iran had dismissed as baseless information provided by Western intelligence agencies that Iran’s alleged missile and explosives experiments are part of a nuclear weapons programme and continued to enrich uranium in defiance of UN Security Council demands. With the release of ElBaradei’s report, all legal basis (for action against Iran) has collapsed … There is no legal basis for Iran nuclear dossier remaining at the UN Security Council and no justification for sanctions against Iran, state television quoted Vice President Parviz Davoudi as saying on Saturday.
Iran’s nuclear issue has to return to the IAEA as soon as possible … should the issue remain at the Security Council, it will only discredit the council, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told a press conference on Saturday.
Iranian newspapers also hailed the IAEA report on Saturday as a big victory for Iran. Iran vindicated, said a front-page headline in the hard-line daily Hizbullah. Iran’s victory in nuclear final, the daily Jam-e-Jam wrote.
The US-led push for harsher sanctions against Iran became more difficult at the end of last year when American intelligence agencies issued a report saying Tehran had suspended its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 and had not restarted it. However, US officials have continued to insist Iran’s nuclear activities are a threat because they could allow Tehran to restart weapons development in the future.
The IAEA report released on Friday gave Iran a relatively clean bill of health on explaining the origin of traces of enriched uranium in a military facility; experiments with polonium, which can also be used in a weapons programme, and purchases on the nuclear black market.