Hence France’s stated reservations about how productive negotiations will be. “‘Iran is not telling us everything,’ U.N. atomic agency chief says,” from CNN, March 8:
Vienna, Austria (CNN) — Iran is not open about its nuclear program, but it should be, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Wednesday.
“Iran is not telling us everything. That is my impression. We are asking Iran to engage with us proactively, and Iran has a case to answer,” said Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Amano told CNN Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance that Iran has declared a number of nuclear facilities to the IAEA, which has them under its safeguards.
“For these facilities and activities, I can tell that they are in peaceful purpose,” Amano said. “But there are also, there may be other facilities which are not declared, and we have the indication or information that Iran has engaged in activities relevant to the development of nuclear explosive devices.”
Also Wednesday, a Western diplomat here said that the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany — the so-called P5-plus-1 — have agreed on a joint statement on Iran, which will be delivered Thursday to the IAEA.
“The statement underlines our concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment activities at Natanz and Fordow,” the diplomat said. “It calls on the director general of the IAEA to report back on Iran’s progress in fulfilling its obligations.”
Diplomats at the IAEA say the statement is notable because it represents a unified message from a group that has often had difficulty speaking with one voice.
“The hope is it helps isolate Iran and indicates that Russia and China are in the West’s camp in calling on Iran to comply,” the diplomat said.
The United States, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany agreed Tuesday to resume negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Iran signaled a willingness to let international inspectors visit a key military base that international inspectors suspect could be involved in a nuclear weapons program.
The P5-plus-1 said in a letter from the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, that they would resume stalled talks. She was responding to an overture that Iran made last month.
Israel, the United States and other countries have said they suspect that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. International inspectors also have voiced concern, but Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes. Israel has spoken openly about the possibility of an attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
Inspectors want to enter Iran’s Parchin military base to investigate evidence of ongoing activities there. Iran offered Tuesday to let international nuclear inspectors in, but only after details are worked out, its team at the IAEA said. IAEA inspectors had asked to visit the facility during a February trip to Iran but were rebuffed, the agency and Iran have both said.
Inspectors say they believe Iran may have used Parchin to test explosives that could be used to detonate a nuclear weapon. IAEA inspectors visited Parchin twice in 2005, but inspectors did not enter the building that housed the test chamber.
Most recently, after the February visit by inspectors, the agency issued a report announcing that Iran had stepped up its efforts to produce enriched uranium in violation of international resolutions and calling on it to stop. In that report, the agency expressed “serious concerns” about potential military uses by Iran….