IAEA Report Links Iran Nuclear Program to Military Use, Iran Enraged
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released Tuesday a report containing information indicating Iran had conducted activities to develop a nuclear explosive device. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the report a fake and accused IAEA director general Yukiya Amano of being a U.S. puppet.
The IAEA report raised serious concerns on the military aspect of Iran's nuclear program.
CNN quoted the IAEA report as saying that Iran has made efforts, some successful, to procure nuclear related and dual use equipment and materials by military related individuals and entities, has acquired nuclear weapons information from a clandestine nuclear supply network, and worked on mastering the design of a nuclear weapon and tested components.
The report added that Iran never really stopped nuclear weapons research and technology development after 2003.
Speaking on state-run Press TV, Ahmadinejad described the report as "fabricated a stack of papers." He said the IAEA should instead report on the nuclear weapons in thousands of U.S. military bases.
An Iranian daily, Keyhan, said the report is a lie as it cited no new documents but was based on files found in a laptop allegedly stolen from Iran in 2004.
The electronic files about studies related to nuclear weapons development had no matching original documents, the paper said, according to Press TV. Documents pertaining to the studies that emerged later were also disproved by Iran saying they were bogus.
(To contact the reporter for this story: windsorgenova@yahoo.com; the editor: c.jared@ibtimes.com.au)