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VIENNA-Iran has launched the development of advanced centrifuges for faster uranium enrichment, a U.N. nuclear watchdog report said Friday.The report, obtained by Kyodo News, said,"Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities" and "has started the development of new generation centrifuges."The report, circulated by Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to all 35 board members, is likely to prompt the U.N. Security Council to adopt a new sanctions resolution against Tehran next week.The five permanent Security Council members of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany have drafted wider U.N. sanctions against Iran.Iran has refused to halt uranium enrichment despite two U.N. sanctions resolutions and denies the West's allegations that it wants to make atomic bombs, saying its program is for peaceful power generation.A fresh U.N. resolution, even if approved, is unlikely to lead to Iran's suspension of its uranium enrichment activities, diplomatic sources say, because Tehran is seeking to establish a nuclear fuel cycling system on its own.The report said the number of centrifuges at an enrichment plant in Natanz, central Iran, remains unchanged from what it was as of early November-about 3,000. Meanwhile, the report said the U.N. watchdog confirmed earlier this year that Iran is trying to develop advanced centrifuges, IR-2s.It also said progress is being made on Iran's disclosure of its past and current nuclear development programs but that its disclosure is not enough to convince the IAEA that Iran has fully accounted for its nuclear material and activities.The IAEA "was able to continue to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material," the report said, and Iran did not respond to questions raised in the work plan, except the alleged studies.The report was issued one week ahead of the next IAEA board meeting set for March 3.The U.N. agency and Iran agreed last August on the work plan under which Tehran should have resolved all outstanding issued by the end of 2007.Iran, however, did not meet the deadline.When ElBaradei visited Tehran in mid-January, Iran was given another four weeks to bring forward answers to all remaining questions.But the report said that although Iran resolved many outstanding issues, some still remain unresolved.The IAEA "has no concrete information about possible current undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran" although some additional information about its current activities has been provided to the agency, the report said."Iran's leaders have lost another opportunity to fully disclose their nuclear activities and to regain international confidence," U.S. Ambassador Gregory Schulte said in a statement."Iran's nuclear file remains open, both in Vienna and New York, and is a source of continued serious international concern," said Schulte, the chief U.S. representative to the IAEA.Senior diplomats from Britain, France, Germany, the United States,China and Russia will meet in Washington on Monday to discuss the next steps regarding Iran's nuclear program, a Western diplomat was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UVH6F00&show_article=1
As in the days of Noah....
