Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh said the new report by the agency verifies there has been no diversion in Tehran's peaceful nuclear energy program, Press TV reported.

In its last report before Iranian elections, the IAEA said Iran had made progress across the board in its nuclear program, enriching more uranium and installing hundreds of next-generation centrifuges that could speed enrichment.

It said Iran increased its total stock of low-enriched uranium by almost 8 percent, to nearly 10 tons over just three months, after release of last IAEA report.

All of these activities are under Agency safeguards, and all of the nuclear material, installed cascades and the feed and withdrawal stations at those facilities are subject to Agency containment and surveillance, the IAEA report reads.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors in Vienna on June 3, Soltanieh said the new report by the UN nuclear agency proves Iran's technical and scientific success in its peaceful nuclear activities.

"In fact, this report is a clear indication that Iran is successfully continuing its nuclear activities for peaceful purposes and this is an important message to the whole world.

"Therefore, those few countries that have not coped themselves with the reality, they should cope themselves with the reality that Iran is mastering enrichment technology and Iran is fully cooperating with the IAEA," he said.

He added that these countries should depoliticize the IAEA as soon as possible and disengage from involving the UN Security Council in this important technical matter.

All the centrifuges and each gram of uranium in Iran are under IAEA supervision, he said.

However, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said earlier that by increasing the number of centrifuges and volume of enriched uranium, Iran is violating the resolutions of the IAEA and the UN Security Council.

Amano said the IAEA cannot guarantee that Iran will use its existing nuclear material for peaceful purposes.

"Iran does not provide enough level of cooperation for us to have the opportunity to guarantee the absence of non-declared nuclear materials and activity. Therefore, the agency cannot conclude that all nuclear materials in Iran are being used for peaceful purposes," the IAEA head said.

The Western countries and some of their allies have accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

However, Iran has strongly rejected the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.