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IAEA report concludes Iran worked on nuclear weapons development
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) yesterday published its long-awaited report into the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear development and concluded that a weapons programme did exist until 2003, continuing sporadically until 2009. Iran has always claimed that its nuclear work was purely for peaceful purposes.
The detailed report concluded that “a range of activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device were conducted in Iran prior to the end of 2003 as a coordinated effort, and some activities took place after 2003.”
The IAEA assessed that this work comprised mainly the acquisition of technical capability. However, it also raised concerns over Iranian experiments with exploding bridgewire detonators, which generate the critical fissile mass for a nuclear weapon. The report commented that “detonators developed by Iran have characteristics relevant to a nuclear explosive device.” In addition, the report criticised activity at the Parchin site, where experts suspect Iran carried out explosive tests. The report said that extensive re-modelling of Parchin had been carried out ahead of a 2012 IAEA inspection, which “seriously undermined the agency’s ability to conduct effective verification.”
Satisfaction with the report is considered a pre-requisite for implementing the July accord agreed between Iran and the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany). US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the report paved the way to close the investigation, but that it is consistent with the long-held US assessment “that Iran had a nuclear weapons program that was halted in 2003.”
Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that the report “far from calms Israel’s fears” and shows “that Iran has continued, even recently, to try to hide its nuclear activity.” A statement from Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said that the report exposed Iran’s “deception and obfuscation” and urged the international community “to continue its investigation through the IAEA” or else “the world will not know how far Iran went in its secret program, and what its current status is.”