NEWS: U.S. Officials Differ on Strength of Iran Nuke Claim

US officials and agencies are voicing a different opinons over a new series of satelite pictures of a suspected Iranian nuclear site. On senior US official claimed tha the pictures show that Iran is showing its intention to produce nuclear weapons. Images of the Parchin military base located southeast of Theran may be a site for development, testing and production of nuclear weapons. Iran has denied having any intent to produce these weapons and denounced the accusation. The US government furthermore critisized the UN run International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of leaving out information regarding the activities in Parchin in its most recent report. Other US officials however, have expressed a different view about the site. One indicated that the site was worth keeping an eye on, but did not seem to raise the same level of alarm. Yet another western diplomat, indicated that the CIA is also undecided about Parchin being a site of nuclear activity in Iran.



Hossein Mousavian, the Iranian representative to the IAEA, denounced the American statement as yet another lie. The timing of the announcement was also questioned as the IAEA is discussing a resoulution on the Iran issue this week. This resoulution could result in a showdown between Iran and the IAEA in November. The outcome of this could result in UN sanctions of Iran.

Mousavian has indicated that if the IAEA wished to see the site, they could do so, but the IAEA indicated that they had asked an had recieved no answer. Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the IAEA has indicated publicly that while he is not convinced that Iran's nuclear aims are not entirely peacfull, there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. The current debate within the IAEA centers around the United States, Australia, and Canada demanding a hard line be taken, and France, Germany, and Britan advocating a softer approach.

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In a recent development, The US, Canada, Australia, and the EU delegation have reached an agreement. The draft resolution, describes as something all can live with, would have the IAEA (if sufficent grounds exist) take action and possible report Iran to the Security Council. If the Security Council feels violations have taken place, sanctions could be imposed on Iran.

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States has reached an agreement with France, Britain and Germany on a draft U.N. resolution on Iran that calls for an immediate halt to Tehran's uranium enrichment program, a diplomat said late on Thursday.

"It's a text that all six countries can live with," a Western diplomat close to the talks told Reuters, referring to discussions between Canada, Australia and the European Union (news - web sites)'s "big three" on Iran's nuclear program, which Washington says is a cover for a nuclear weapons program.

Nuclear Talks

[edit on 16-9-2004 by FredT]