Iran: IAEA report into past nuke work is false

A top Iranian nuclear official says the IAEA’s report on Iran’s nuclear activities, which concluded that Tehran pursued a nuclear weapons program but mostly abandoned it in 2003, is “unacceptable and incorrect.”

Ali Shamkhani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, says the report released last week, while problematic, shows that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.

“Although the report is incomplete, unacceptable and false in some parts, a number of its provisions verify the non-diversion of the Islamic Republic’s peaceful nuclear program,” he says in a meeting with Lebanese Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news outlet.

Shamkhani does not detail what he believes is false in the report.

The report found that Iran mostly stopped pursuing a bomb by 2003 and totally abandoned the project by 2009. While the IAEA delivered the report with several caveats, Iran has said it is proof they can close their probe, thus paving the way for the implementation of a deal with world powers to lift sanctions.

Also on Monday, Russia’s envoy to the IAEA says that — based on the report — the deal should be implemented next month, according to Reuters.

“We believe that, based on this final assessment, the board of governors should close the so-called PMD [possible military dimensions] issue,” Vladimir Voronkov says.