VIENNA — Iran has steadfastly blocked a U.N. investigation into allegations it tried to make nuclear arms and the probe is now deadlocked, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday.
The conclusion was contained in an IAEA report released to the 35-nation IAEA board and the U.N. Security Council, which has already imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear defiance.
“We’ve arrived at a gridlock,” said a senior U.N. official, describing the document as “a progress report without progress.” He demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the restricted report, made available to The Associated Press.
Since its last report in May, “the agency . . . has not been able to make any substantive progress,” the IAEA report said, calling the impasse a matter of “serious concern.” The document said Iran has now amassed a third of the amount of enriched uranium it could reprocess into the material for the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.
The United States and its allies allege Iran wants to develop its uranium enrichment program to make nuclear weapons. But oil-rich Iran insists it only wants to make nuclear fuel, and IAEA oversight and inspections of its known enrichment program has not come up with any evidence that contradicts that.
In Washington, the White House threatened more sanctions if Iran continues to defy the U.N.
But Ali-Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief delegate to the IAEA, asserted there was nothing for the agency to investigate as far as weapons programs were concerned.
The report confirmed Iran continues to expand its uranium enrichment program in defiance of the three sets of U.N. sanctions.
The document said Iran was now either fully or partially operating nearly 4,000 centrifuges.
