The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency found Iran to be generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear history Thursday, but said it continued to defy the U.N. Security Council on uranium enrichment.
In a report, the International Atomic Energy Agency also said it could not rule out that Iran had a secret weapons program because of restrictions Tehran slapped on its inspectors two years ago.
Despite such warnings, a senior U.N. official familiar with the Iran dossier described the report as a "step forward," adding: "Now at last, we start to get answers."
Announcing that the U.S. administration would push for a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters: "We believe that selective cooperation is not good enough."
Britain's Foreign Office also said it would seek new U.N. sanctions. "As the IAEA report now shows that Iran has still not addressed several issues about its nuclear program, we will pursue further Security Council and EU sanctions," it said, according to the AP. "If Iran wants to restore trust in its program it must come clean on all outstanding issues without delay."
The report confirmed Tehran was staying on course, saying it was now running about 3,000 centrifuges, which spin uranium gas to enrich it.
The report also said Iran had stockpiled nearly 270 metric tons of the precursor gas used in enrichment. That would suffice for about 40 nuclear bombs were it spun to weapons-grade level.
Repeating previous warnings, the report said the IAEA "is not in a position to provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities" unless Iran restores more robust inspection rights to agency experts.
Much of the 10 page-report focused on the history of Iran's black-market procurements and past development of its enrichment technology and the agency appeared to be giving Tehran a pass on that issue, repeatedly saying it concludes that "Iran's statements are consistent with .... information available to the agency.
"Iran has provided sufficient access to individuals and has responded in a timely manner to questions and provide (needed) clarifications and amplifications," it said.
It noted "cooperation has been active rather than pro-active," and urged Tehran to provide "active cooperation and full transparency."
In Tehran, senior officials welcomed the U.N. report. Iran's nuclear negotiator said on Thursday that issuing another resolution against Iran by the United Nations Security Council will have negative impact on the process of modality plan. According to IRNA, Saeed Jalili, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), added that given the new "positive" report by the IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, if the US seeks another resolution against Iran, it will affect cooperation on modality plan.
He further referred to the fact that ElBaradei's new report, proved the charges against the Islamic Republic of Iran are unfounded.
Responding to a question on the US stance towards the ElBaradei's report, he noted that they do not consider the facts about Iran and will continue with their hostile attitude.
