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British diplomat: Iran's nuclear program continued past 2003 |
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Tuesday, 26 February 2008 |
VIENNA (AP) - Iran may have continued work on nuclear weapons past 2003, the year US intelligence says such activities stopped, a senior British diplomat said Monday.
Simon Smith, the chief British delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, commented after an IAEA presentation of documentation that - if accurate - would strongly back US claims that Iran at one point worked on programs linked to attempts to make nuclear weapons.
That assertion was also made by a US National Intelligence Estimate, summarized and made public late last year. That report also said, however, that the Iranians froze such work in 2003.
Asked whether the information presented to the IAEA's 35 board member nations indicated that Teheran continued such activities past that date, Smith said: "Certainly some of the dates... went beyond 2003," but did not elaborate.
Another diplomat at the presentation, who asked for anonymity because the IAEA meeting was closed, said some of the documentation focused on a 2004 Iranian report on alleged weapons activities. But she said it was unclear whether the project was being actively worked on then.
A senior diplomat inside the meeting said that among the material shown was an Iranian video depicting mockups of a missile re-entry vehicle. He said IAEA Director General Oli Heinonen suggested the component - which brings missiles back from the stratosphere - was configured in a way that strongly suggests it was meant to carry a nuclear warhead.
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