World Powers Hike Pressure on Iran
Six world powers engaged in stalled talks with Iran over its nuclear programme said Wednesday it was "essential and urgent" Tehran cooperates with the U.N. atomic agency over allegations of bomb research.
The U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany also said they were "deeply concerned" by Iran's continued expansion of its nuclear program despite U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for a suspension.
It said that after 10 failed meetings between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran over the past 18 months it was "essential and urgent for Iran to engage with the agency on the substance of its concerns".
The countries -- all permanent U.N. Security Council members except Germany -- said that this included Iran fulfilling "its undertaking to grant access to Parchin," a military base near Tehran.
The IAEA believes Iran constructed a large explosives containment vessel at Parchin in 2000 to conduct experiments that it says would be "strong indicators of possible nuclear weapon development".
Iran has rejected IAEA requests to visit the site and denies wanting or ever having worked on developing a nuclear weapon. It says that the IAEA's allegations are based on faulty intelligence provided by Tehran's enemies.
The allegations on Parchin form part of a major report issued by the IAEA in November 2011 summarizing information on suspected nuclear weapons research that it had been given, mostly, but not only, by foreign intelligence agencies.
IAEA head Yukiya Amano said on Monday that after the 10 meetings, the latest on May 15, with Iran on these allegations, the two sides were "going around in circles".
Wednesday's statement was delivered by Germany's ambassador Konrad Scharinger at a closed-door meeting of the IAEA'S 35-nation board of governors in Vienna.
The IAEA's latest quarterly report on Iran, circulated on May 22, showed Iran continuing to build up its capacity to enrich uranium, which in highly purified form could be used in a nuclear weapon.
The IAEA report also detailed advances by Iran building a new reactor at Arak which could provide Tehran with plutonium -- an alternative to uranium for a bomb -- if the reactor fuel is reprocessed.
These advances come in spite of numerous rounds of U.N. and Western sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran's access to nuclear technology and which began to cause Tehran economic problems in 2012.
The United States this week blacklisted a "major network of front companies" that serve Tehran's leaders and announced new sanctions focused on the rial currency and the auto sector.
The six powers, known as the E3+3 or the P5+1, are also involved in diplomatic efforts parallel to those of the IAEA.
The last round of such talks in April in Kazakhstan "enhanced mutual understanding of the concerns of both sides". However, the two sides "remained far apart on the substance," according to the new statement.
