VIENNA, Austria — Iran has rejected documents that link it to missile and explosives experiments and other work connected to a possible nuclear weapons program, calling the information false and irrelevant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.
As expected, an IAEA report also confirmed that Iran continued to enrich uranium despite two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions to punish it for defying council demands that it suspend such work, which can generate fuel for nuclear reactors and the fissile core of warheads.
An 11-page report obtained by The Associated Press suggested all other major issues that had raised past suspicions about Iran’s claims to be working only on a peaceful nuclear energy program had either been fully resolved or were ‘‘no longer outstanding at this stage.’’
But it said Tehran rejected as irrelevant the documentation that purportedly shows Iran conducted tests of missile trajectories and high explosives and researched a missile re-entry vehicle — activities that most likely would be part of weapons development. Questions also remained on diagrams in Iran’s possession showing how to mold uranium metal into warhead shape.
The issue of weaponization is ‘‘the one major remaining (unsolved) issue relevant to the nature of Iran’s nuclear programme,’’ the report said.
It said that among the evidence reviewed by Tehran — and rejected as irrelevant — were diagrams showing a missile re-entry vehicle that would be ‘‘quite likely ... able to accommodate a nuclear device.’’
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, welcomed the report, saying it provided more evidence vindicating his country.
‘‘This report is more evidence proving Iran’s truthfulness on the nuclear issue,’’ he said at a news conference.
Iran’s dismissal was sure to be unacceptable for the United States, which diplomats say provided most of the material to the IAEA that led in recent months to an accelerated U.N. investigation of Iran’s purported weapons activities.
‘‘We’ve heard about the Iranians cooperating in the past, yet many questions remain,’’ said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
Ahead of the confidential report’s release to the 35-nation IAEA board and the Security Council, U.S. officials had repeatedly insisted that the IAEA probe would be incomplete unless Iran acknowledged it tried to make nuclear arms in the past. That stance is shared by Canada, Japan, Australia and U.S. allies in Europe.
A senior IAEA official, who agreed to discuss the report only if not quoted by name, said that if the intelligence material provided by the U.S. and other IAEA members was genuine, most of the Iranian work was ‘‘most likely for nuclear weapons.’’
But he said the agency did not plan to reach any conclusions of its own until the Iranians went beyond rejection of the purported evidence and concretely addressed the issues it raised.
As expected, an IAEA report also confirmed that Iran continued to enrich uranium despite two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions to punish it for defying council demands that it suspend such work, which can generate fuel for nuclear reactors and the fissile core of warheads.
An 11-page report obtained by The Associated Press suggested all other major issues that had raised past suspicions about Iran’s claims to be working only on a peaceful nuclear energy program had either been fully resolved or were ‘‘no longer outstanding at this stage.’’
But it said Tehran rejected as irrelevant the documentation that purportedly shows Iran conducted tests of missile trajectories and high explosives and researched a missile re-entry vehicle — activities that most likely would be part of weapons development. Questions also remained on diagrams in Iran’s possession showing how to mold uranium metal into warhead shape.
The issue of weaponization is ‘‘the one major remaining (unsolved) issue relevant to the nature of Iran’s nuclear programme,’’ the report said.
It said that among the evidence reviewed by Tehran — and rejected as irrelevant — were diagrams showing a missile re-entry vehicle that would be ‘‘quite likely ... able to accommodate a nuclear device.’’
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, welcomed the report, saying it provided more evidence vindicating his country.
‘‘This report is more evidence proving Iran’s truthfulness on the nuclear issue,’’ he said at a news conference.
Iran’s dismissal was sure to be unacceptable for the United States, which diplomats say provided most of the material to the IAEA that led in recent months to an accelerated U.N. investigation of Iran’s purported weapons activities.
‘‘We’ve heard about the Iranians cooperating in the past, yet many questions remain,’’ said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
Ahead of the confidential report’s release to the 35-nation IAEA board and the Security Council, U.S. officials had repeatedly insisted that the IAEA probe would be incomplete unless Iran acknowledged it tried to make nuclear arms in the past. That stance is shared by Canada, Japan, Australia and U.S. allies in Europe.
A senior IAEA official, who agreed to discuss the report only if not quoted by name, said that if the intelligence material provided by the U.S. and other IAEA members was genuine, most of the Iranian work was ‘‘most likely for nuclear weapons.’’
But he said the agency did not plan to reach any conclusions of its own until the Iranians went beyond rejection of the purported evidence and concretely addressed the issues it raised.