Iran Rejects Nuclear Allegations
Iran on Thursday rejected a report that it was close to building an atomic bomb, insisting that its nuclear program was locally developed merely to produce electricity.
“Allegations that Iran was working with other countries in order to attain nuclear technology are sheer lies,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
Asefi was reacting to a report in Monday’s Los Angeles Times that Iran “appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb.”
The Times -- citing previously secret reports, international officials, independent experts and Iranian exiles -- said Iran has made use of technology and scientists from Russia, North Korea, China and Pakistan to bring it closer to building a bomb than Iraq had been.
“Iran’s nuclear technology has been developed by Iranian scientists and is just for civilian and peaceful use,” Asefi was quoted as saying. He called The Times’ report “irresponsible.”
The U.S. has accused Iran of running a clandestine nuclear weapons program and wants the International Atomic Energy Agency to declare Tehran in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
A three-member legal team from the IAEA, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, met Iranian government officials this week to discuss an additional protocol to the treaty that would allow inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities without notice.
President Mohammad Khatami hinted that Iran may sign it “if the world recognizes” his country’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
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