Iran has strongly denied pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
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The panel said it has not yet investigated a subsequent Iranian ballistic missile launch reported by the media on November 21 and therefore “cannot determine whether it was another Emad test”. “We can not be complacent”.
The move comes after last month’s IAEA assessment that Iran worked in the past on elements of a nuclear weapon.
Iran expects the global and Western sanctions against the country to be lifted in January, Rouhani said.
But Amano said the IAEA “has no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009”.
Under the deal, Iran pledged to slash the number of centrifuges – which enrich uranium – from around 19,000 to 6,104, of which 5,060 will still enrich.
But that was nothing more than feasibility and scientific studies, and the acquisition of certain technical capabilities – although Yukiya Amano says the IAEA will as a matter of course continue to monitor Iran’s nuclear industry. Refraining from previous critical language, the European Union said only “we note” the agency conclusion.
Despite Iran’s “long history of concealment, denial and deception”, the July deal is “forward-looking”, the United States ambassador to the IAEA, Henry Ensher, said Tuesday.
Since being confronted with the documents by the IAEA in 2008, Iran has maintained it never undertook any such nuclear weapons research. The panel produced its report after the United States, Britain, France and Germany in October called on the U.N. sanctions committee to take action in response to Iran’s test of an Emad missile.
“Iran is continuing to focus on further improvement of the performance of its existing ballistic missile system with a particular focus on accuracy”, said the report.
Iran and six world powers reached a landmark nuclear deal on July 14, and the Security Council gave its endorsement in a resolution on July 20 that also asked Iran not to test any ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, according to The Associated Press.
Ballistic missile tests by Iran are banned under Security Council resolution 1929, which dates from 2010 and remains valid until the July nuclear deal between Iran and world powers goes into effect.
A report by the UN Security Council’s Panel of Experts on Iran said that the Emad rocket was a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Diplomats said the members likely would review the US request, but that punitive measures were unlikely and did not have the support of Russian Federation and China-two nations with veto power.
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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday the closure of investigations into Iran’s past nuclear activities was a political victory for the country, and that the Islamic Republic would start implementing the deal within weeks. Iranian Foreign Minister welcomed yesterday’s announcement by the Vienna-based IAEA.
