All news

IAEA Board of Governors to examine report on Iran nuclear program

Observers' access to the Parchin site still remains one of stumbling-blocks in this respect

VIENNA, June 3 (Itar-Tass) - A session of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) opens in the Austrian capital on Monday and will continue until Friday.

A source in the diplomatic circles of the Agency told Itar-Tass, "There are two main items on the agenda --- endorsement of the IAEA budget for next year, and a discussion of the regular quarterly report on the nuclear programme of Iran".

The source said, "It is planned that IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano, apart from the main report, will also present conclusions drawn by IAEA experts as a result of check-ups and observations of Iran's actions to implement the nuclear programme".

Interlocutors of Itar-Tass said earlier in comment on the report, which is not yet open to the public, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) made considerable headway recently in increasing its nuclear resources. About 700 centrifuges have been installed at the research and production sites for fuel regeneration.

At the same time, during the 11th round of the Iran-IAEA talks in mid-May the sides again failed to fix a key document which determines the so-called modality of experts' access to Iran's nuclear facilities for determining the military component of nuclear development efforts. Observers' access to the Parchin site still remains one of stumbling-blocks in this respect.

The IAEA has doubts that the research being conducted there is of purely peaceful nature. In the estimate of some specialists, Iran, while developing its nuclear programme, is increasingly balancing on the verge of a breach of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

"Really, the report examines in detail the progress being made in the development of nuclear power engineering contrary to the decisions of the UN Security Council and resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors. The Iranians go on building up their nuclear-power and other capacities", the source said.

"The IAEA's main misgivings are aroused by researches which have a possible 'dual orientation' ", the sources said. "If there is no switch-over of nuclear material (from civilian to military purposes), this must be proved," the source explains.

The source also presupposes that following the presentation of the report, the Six (Russia, China, the United States, France, Britain, and Germany), which also holds talks with Iran, will come forward with a statement in reply and will define the actions of the IRI. "It is not yet finally clear so far whether that will be a reaction by the Six or national statements," the interlocutor of Itar-Tass said. " I do not rule it out that there will be a joint reply by the Six on this issue".

When speaking of the IAEA budget for 2014, the source remarked that expenditure might grow to some extent. A Russian delegation representative, for his part, told Itar-Tass, "Russia is not against a certain augmentation of the budget". "We shall be ready to uphold any consensus-like decision even if it will be directed towards a minor increase. The main thing is to stick to the right goal-setting". "From this point of view, the discussion of the budget is developing in the right direction," he said.