Iran says work plan closed, U.S. intelligence fake

Reuters: Iran said on Sunday it had cleared up all past outstanding issues over its nuclear programme with the United Nations nuclear watchdog and accused the United States of providing intelligence that was fake. VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran said on Sunday it had cleared up all past outstanding issues over its nuclear programme with the United Nations nuclear watchdog and accused the United States of providing intelligence that was fake.

“The work plan is finished,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Reuters, referring to a pact between Tehran and the IAEA to answer outstanding questions about its nuclear activities one by one.

In its latest report published on Friday, the IAEA said Iran had responded to questions and clarified issues raised in the context of the work plan struck in August, with the exception of alleged studies into the possible weaponisation of nuclear materials.

The agency said it confronted Iran for the first time with Western intelligence reports of work linked to making atomic bombs, adding Tehran had failed to provide satisfactory answers.

Soltanieh said the intelligence, coming mainly from the U.S. and a laptop spirited out of Iran in 2005, was fake. “This is 100 percent fabricated and forged,” said Soltanieh.

Some of the documents had only been shown to Tehran in mid-February — after it had already given its final assessment on the outstanding issues to the agency and in any case too late to be addressed in time for the February report, said Soltanieh.

“At the eve of every board of governors they brought up new allegations against Iran and they created a new political environment,” Soltanieh said. “We cannot permit an endless process to go on,” he said.

The IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors is scheduled to meet March 3-7.

Western powers suspect Iran is seeking to build atomic bombs, but Tehran insists it is seeking to master nuclear technology so it can make fuel for a planned network of nuclear power plants and save its huge oil and gas reserves for export.