AJC Calls New IAEA Report on Iran Nuclear Program 'Alarming'

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Sep 06, 2010, 05:57 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC called today's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report alarming, and urged the international community to further step up pressure on Tehran to end its dangerous march towards nuclear-weapons capability.

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"The new IAEA report confirms once again the extent of Iran's brazen defiance of the international community," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "Not only has Tehran ignored four UN Security Council sanctions resolutions, but it also has refused to cooperate with the world's top nuclear watchdog. The ominous dangers to regional and global security could not be clearer. Meanwhile, shockingly, Tehran enjoys business as usual in too many places around the world."

The new IAEA report revealed that Iran has refused for more than two years to provide the agency's nuclear inspectors with information requested, and has prevented access to Iranian nuclear sites, including barring two IAEA inspectors from entering the country.

Meanwhile, the IAEA reported that Iran, while downgrading cooperation with nuclear inspectors, has continued to step up its uranium stockpile. Iran has increased its production of low-enriched uranium by 15 percent in just the last three months, according to The New York Times, and, with further conversion, Iran would have enough uranium to produce two nuclear weapons.

"Iran has not provided the necessary cooperation to permit the agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities," stated the IAEA, adding that Iran's refusal to cooperate while continuing its nuclear program is an "urgent matter."

AJC, a leading global nongovernmental agency, has been pressing the international community for a decade to take appropriate measures to deter Tehran's belligerent leaders from succeeding in acquiring nuclear-weapons capability.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee