VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog has raised the stakes in a Western standoff with Iran by lending credence to allegations it studied ways to make atom bombs, but Tehran looks unlikely to give ground. Before big power talks on Wednesday on whether to sharpen sanctions against Iran, the agency released a summary of its probe into whether Tehran linked projects to process uranium, conduct high-altitude explosive tests relevant to detonating atom bombs, and tried to revamp a missile cone to house a nuclear payload.
No “smoking gun” proof of a bomb agenda emerged in the distillation of the five-year-old International Atomic Energy Agency investigation, reflected in an August 28 IAEA report on Iran‘s contested uranium enrichment program.
But in unusually forthright language, the IAEA said the intelligence was too consistent, comprehensive and detailed, coming from multiple sources at different times, for Iran to keep dodging scrutiny with blanket denials.
A senior diplomat close to the inquiry said … >>>
