Top official says report that Teheran making weapons-grade uranium is false.
By ASSOCIATED PRESSiranian nuclear 298 ap(photo credit: AP [file])
A recent US House of Representatives committee report on Iran's nuclear capability is "outrageous and dishonest" in trying to make a case that Teheran's program is geared toward making weapons, a senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency has said.
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday outside a 35-nation IAEA board meeting, the official says the report is false in saying Iran is making weapons-grade uranium at an experimental enrichment site, when it has in fact produced material only in small quantities that is far below the level that can be used in nuclear arms.
The letter, which was first reported on by The Washington Post, also says the report erroneously says that IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei removed a senior nuclear inspector from the team investigating Iran's nuclear program "for concluding that the purpose of Iran's nuclear programme is to construct weapons."
In fact, the inspector was sidelined on Teheran's request, and the Islamic republic had a right to ask for a replacement under agreements that govern all states relationships with the agency, said the letter, calling the report's version "incorrect and misleading."
"In addition," says the letter, "the report contains an outrageous and dishonest suggestion that such removal might have been for 'not having adhered to an unstated IAEA policy barring IAEA officials from telling the whole truth about the Iranian nuclear program.'"
Dated Aug. 12, the letter was addressed to Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. It was signed by Vilmos Cserveny, a senior director of the Vienna-based agency.
An IAEA official, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the letter, said it was written "to set the record straight."
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