Iran says UN nuclear watchdog bends to political influence
AFP
Date: 2/26/2010
by Kyoko Hasegawa Kyoko Hasegawa – Fri Feb 26, 12:38 pm ET
TOKYO (AFP) – Iran's parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani on Friday accused the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), of bending to pressure from the world powers.
"One of the defects in the IAEA is that it changes positions and attitudes if it is put under certain political pressure," said Larijani when asked about an agency report that said Iran may be seeking a nuclear bomb.
"I think the IAEA should be an organisation that states its views based on concrete facts, but should not comment on something such as 'there is a possibility,'" Larijani told reporters during a Tokyo visit.
The UN agency's new chief Yukiya Amano in a first report to the board of governors last week expressed concern Iran might be seeking to develop a nuclear warhead as suspected by the United States and European nations.
The report said: "The information available to the agency ... raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile."
Larijani said the IAEA "plays very poorly its role of supporting countries which wish to obtain the nuclear capability for peaceful purposes, because of political influence from several big powers."
He also reiterated that Japan had made an offer to enrich uranium for Tehran to allow it access to nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
"I don't know if you read the Japanese offer, but various proposals are made in it," he said. "We welcome this kind of subsurface–level initiative."
Japan's Nikkei business daily reported this week that the offer was made, with US backing, in December during a Tokyo visit by Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in brief comments Friday denied that Japan had made a formal offer and told reporters: "I am not aware of the report that Japan would do the nuclear (processing)."
Larijani was Saturday due to visit the western Japanese city of Nagasaki, which was hit with an American atomic bomb at the end of World War II, three days after a US nuclear attack devastated Hiroshima.
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