Iran: Better cooperation if matter moved from UNSC

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Iran promised Sunday to improve its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog if the agency, instead of the UN Security Council, takes charge of its nuclear dossier. "If the case is returned to the agency itself, it would be possible to review current ambiguities better than before," Mohammed Ali Hosseini, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, told journalists. "The agency is the best and the most qualified body for the case." Hosseini sought to show that Iran had cooperated with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the past and was ready for greater cooperation, provided that the nuclear watchdog agreed to its requests. The IAEA officially turned over Iran's dossier to the Security Council in February after Iran had failed to answer key questions about its nuclear activities. Iran's lack of transparency has increased suspicions by the US, and several of its Western allies, that Iran is trying to make atomic weapons, a charge it denies. It says that its goal is to generate electricity. Hosseini mentioned that Iran had granted IAEA inspectors access to the Lavizan site, a former nuclear research facility. "The request by the agency, for taking sample, has been accepted," he said about a visit the IAEA mentioned in a report in April.