BEIRUT — The latest United Nations report on Iran’s nuclear program questioned Teh ran’s credibility regarding a recently disclosed facility built into a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
The International Atomic Energy Agency report issued Monday noted Iran’s contention that it began work on the nuclear facility in 2007 in response to Bush administration threats of war as part of a plan to safeguard sensitive “organizations and activities” that could be targeted in an armed conflict.
But according to the agency report, satellite photos showed construction on the Fordow facility began in 2002, well before Iran’s nuclear program became an international issue. U.S. officials previously said they first detected the site in 2006.
The U.S. and other major powers worry that Iran’s nuclear research program will ultimately produce arms, an allegation Iran denies.
The discrepancy in dates is a significant measure of Iran’s sincerity.
“Iran’s declaration of the new facility . . . gives rise to questions about whether there were any other nuclear facilities in Iran which had not been declared to the agency,” the report said.
Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, dismissed the report as “routine” and “repetitive,” according to the Fars news agency.
A U.S. State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly, said the IAEA report “underscores that Iran still refuses to comply fully with its international nuclear obligations.”
Iran has yet to definitively respond to a proposal to swap its enriched uranium for fuel rods to operate a medical research reactor, and world powers have begun buzzing about imposing new economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
