Iran still not cooperating over its n-programme: IAEA chief

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano during a news conference in Vienna on Monday.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency on Tuesday said that Iran is still not cooperating with the IAEA to show that its nuclear programme is peaceful.

“Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable the Agency to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said.

“I request Iran to take steps towards the full implementation of its Safeguards Agreement and its other obligations,” Mr. Amano told the Board of Governors of the IAEA.

Iran denies that it is trying to build a nuclear bomb, and insists that its uranium enrichment programme is to make medical isotopes.

“Full implementation by Iran of its binding obligations is needed to establish international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme,” Mr. Amano said.

In June last year, the U.N. Security Council passed a fourth round of sanctions against Iran for running its nuclear programme without transparency and violating previous Security Council resolutions along with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The resolution created new categories of sanctions and includes: banning Iran’s investment in nuclear activity abroad, banning all ballistic missiles activities, blocking Iran’s use of banks aboard and asset freezes for members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The resolution, however, did not pass unanimously.

There were 12 votes in favour but both Turkey and Brazil voted against while Lebanon abstained.

On recent developments in North Korea (DPRK), Mr. Amano said made the country’s nuclear programme is a matter of serious concern for the North-East Asia region and beyond.

“I believe that last year’s reports about the construction of a new uranium enrichment facility and a light water reactor in the DPRK underline how important it is that the Agency should be present in the DPRK,” he said.