Iran generally truthful on aspects of its nuclear history, UN agency says

A report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency on Thursday found Iran to be generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear history, but it warned that its knowledge of Tehran’s present atomic work was shrinking.\nThe White House said it would continue to push for a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran despite the findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency report.\nThe IAEA report, released to its 35 board members, also confirmed that Tehran continued to defy the U.N. Security Council by ignoring its repeated demands to freeze uranium enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms.\nWhite House press secretary Dana Perino said the report indicated that Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities and continues to defy the international community.\n“We believe that selective cooperation is not good enough,” she said. “Iran continues to walk away from a deal that has been offered to them. We said they can have a civil nuclear program if they’ll just suspend their current activities.”\nBut top Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili said the report shows that new sanctions would be “illegal action,” adding that Iran has answered all the questions by the IAEA and made “good progress” in cooperating with it.\nIn light of the IAEA report, “many accusations are now baseless,” Jalili said, referring to U.S. assertions that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons.\n“Those powers who base their accusations on this I hope will reconsider what they say,” he said.\nIf new U.N. sanctions are approved, “you should be asking what is the logic in this,” Jalili told reporters in Tehran.\nBritain’s Foreign Office also said it would pursue further sanctions from the Security Council and the European Union.\n“If Iran wants to restore trust in its program, it must come clean on all outstanding issues without delay,” the statement said. It also said Tehran must restore broader and stronger inspection rights to IAEA teams and mothball its enrichment activities to avoid such penalties.\nMuch of the 10-page report made available to The Associated Press 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.”\nA senior U.N. official said that language did not mean that the IAEA’s investigation into past enrichment activities was “closed,” even though a work plan between the agency and Tehran set November as the deadline for clearing up the issue.\nIn Washington, the State Department suggested that China was blocking plans for a new meeting, tentatively set for Vienna on Nov. 19, of the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany to discuss a new sanctions resolution.\nLast week, Iran said it stepped up uranium enrichment activities by fully running 3,000 centrifuges at its nuclear plant in the central city of Natanz. It would take some 54,000 centrifuges to fuel a reactor.