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No big change in Iran nuclear work under Rouhani: IAEA

13 November 2013 21:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA.The head of the U.N. nuclear agency said on Wednesday he saw "no radical change" in Iran's nuclear program in the past three months, roughly since President Hassan Rouhani replaced his combative predecessor, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Reuters the Islamic Republic was pursuing its most sensitive nuclear activity, enrichment of uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent.

But his comments suggested that between August and November Iran had not sharply expanded enrichment, which it says is peaceful but the West fears could be used for nuclear weapons.

Amano said Iran still had "quite a lot to do" to complete the Arak research reactor, a plant which is of deep concern to the West as it will be able to produce plutonium, another potential atomic bomb fuel, once it is operating.

"We do not know when this research reactor will be commissioned," he said. Iran had previously planned a start-up in the first quarter of 2014 but later postponed it.

The IAEA is expected to issue its next quarterly report on Iran - a document keenly scrutinized by Western governments - on Thursday or Friday. It will be the first that only covers developments after Rouhani took office.

"I can say that enrichment activities are ongoing ... no radical change is reported to me," Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat, said in an interview in his office on the 28th floor of the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna.

The previous IAEA report, issued in August, showed Iran rapidly adding to its enrichment capacity by installing 1,861 IR-1 centrifuges - machines used to refine uranium - at its Natanz plant since May to reach a total of 15,416.

Amano spoke two days after Iran agreed to give his inspectors access to two nuclear-related facilities under a cooperation pact that aims to allay international concern about the country's nuclear program.