Iran: Samples will prove nukes peaceful
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-17 10:25

Iran said Sunday that environmental samples taken from a military complex this weekend by U.N. nuclear inspectors will prove that the country's atomic program is for peaceful purposes and not making weapons, as the United States alleges.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency took samples from landscaped areas of the huge Parchin complex, which Washington believes may be involved in nuclear weapons research.

"We know what the result will be. Since we have never done any illegal activity, definitely the result will prove our declarations," Asefi told reporters.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog had been pressing Tehran for months to be allowed to inspect the Tehran-area complex, long used to research ammunition, missiles and high explosives.

The United States has alleged that the Iranians may be testing high-explosive components for a nuclear weapon, using an inert core of depleted uranium at Parchin as a dry run for how a bomb with fissile material would work.

US President Bush's communications director, Dan Bartlett, told CNN's "Late Edition" that the White House wanted to resolve Iran's nuclear file through negotiation, primarily by relying on European allies and the IAEA. But he added that Bush has not ruled out resolving the issue militarily.

"No president at any juncture in history has ever taken military options off the table. That is known. But what President Bush has shown (is) that he believes we can emphasize the diplomatic initiatives that are under way right now," Bartlett said Sunday.

Bush has accused Iran of being part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and prewar Iraq.

In Monday's edition of The New Yorker magazine, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh said Bush and his national security advisers had been "conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer" for the purpose of gathering intelligence and targeting information.

Hersh, who broke the story about the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture scandal, wrote that he had repeatedly been told by intelligence and military officials, on condition of anonymity that, "the next strategic target was Iran."

Bartlett, when questioned about the Hersh article, said he had read excerpts.

"I think it's riddled with inaccuracies. And I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing are based on fact," the White House spokesman said..

Iran had said it would allow U.N. nuclear experts to take environmental samples from green spaces outside the complex's ammunition production workshops, but it would not allow them to inspect military equipment.

Iranian officials also said they would closely watch the inspectors to prevent any possible theft or spying.

Iran repeatedly has denied any work on secret nuclear weapons programs, saying its nuclear activities are for peaceful energy purposes only.

Asefi said Iran and the Europeans will begin a new round of talks in Geneva later this week focusing on nuclear issues as well as political and security cooperation.

Under international pressure, Iran agreed in November to suspended uranium enrichment and all related activities for at least three months while negotiating with the European Union about economic and technological aid, avoiding U.N. Security Council sanctions. The IAEA agreed to police the suspension.

Asefi said Iran will resume uranium enrichment one day.

"We said from the very beginning that the suspension is a voluntary and temporary measure," he said without elaborating.

Also Sunday, Asefi said Iran was investigating reports that Germany had seized an Iranian-bound shipment of four special high-voltage motors that could be used for a nuclear facility.

"We are investigating the reports. If true, it will be the same restrictions Europeans have imposed against Iran and we protest such measures," he said.

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