By Siavosh Ghazi

Source: Agence France Presse (AFP)

March 2, 2010

TEHRAN — Iran’s atomic chief on Tuesday accused the new UN nuclear watchdog head, Yukiya Amano, of taking sides against Tehran’s atomic programme but said he hoped the Japanese official would modify his stand.

Ali Akbar Salehi’s criticism came as Moscow and Beijing — two veto-wielding powers at the UN Security Council — were divided over imposing new sanctions on Tehran.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also appeared to extend her timeline on fresh UN sanctions.

“We expected Mr Amano to examine and adopt a position about the nuclear issue in an unbiased way, but unfortunately and in contradiction with what he had said before, we did not see an unbiased position,” Salehi told AFP, reacting to comments from the watchdog chief on Monday.

“We hope that he will change his approach,” Salehi said on the sidelines of a Tehran meeting of industry ministers of eight developing nations.

Amano, who took over as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on December 1, said in an address to the agency’s board in Vienna that Iran is still not giving sufficient information on its nuclear activities.

“We cannot confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities because Iran has not provided the agency with the necessary cooperation,” the IAEA director general said.

About two weeks before the meeting, Amano had circulated a blunt report to IAEA member states on Iran’s atomic programme in which he expressed concern Tehran may be working on a nuclear warhead.

He also confirmed Iran had started enriching uranium to higher levels, theoretically bringing it close to levels needed for an atomic bomb.

Iran insists its nuclear energy programme is for purely civilian uses.

Soon after the report was released, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the IAEA of lacking independence and being “influenced by the United States.”

On Tuesday, Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani lashed out at Washington, saying its “policy of double standards has affected (the credibility) of the IAEA.”

Larijani said Iran had handled the nuclear file with “precision compared to the adventurist moves by Westerners,” according to ISNA news agency.

Amano, however, said a controversial IAEA-brokered deal to supply higher grade nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor was still on the table.

Salehi said Iran was ready to sign up provided Tehran received “necessary and enough guarantees.”

Under the proposed accord, hammered out last October in Vienna, Russia and France would produce fuel from Iran’s own stockpile of low-enriched uranium, currently estimated at just over 2,065 kilogrammes (4,500 pounds), for the Tehran reactor which makes medical isotopes.

But Iran is reluctant to sign up.

It sees the accord as a ruse by Western powers to deprive it of its uranium stockpile, and has put forward a rival proposal to either buy the fuel on the international market or conduct a fuel swap on Iranian territory.

Salehi said the guarantee which Tehran insisted was that the “exchange (of fuel) must happen simultaneously and inside Iran”, adding such a condition was “not illogical.”

Moscow and Beijing, meanwhile, have appeared divided over imposing a fourth round of UN sanctions on Tehran.

While Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, after talks in Paris on Monday, said Moscow was “ready … to consider introducing sanctions,” Beijing steadfastly urged a diplomatic solution.

“We call for a resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic means. We believe there is still room for diplomatic efforts,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

Beijing, a close ally of Iran with oil interests in the country, has refused to agree to tougher sanctions against Tehran over its disputed nuclear programme, which the West says is a cover for a weapons drive.

Clinton too said on Monday it could take months for new UN sanctions against Iran, signalling a climbdown from her contention before the US senate last week that a new resolution could be obtained in the next “30 to 60 days.”

“We are moving expeditiously and thoroughly in the Security Council. I can’t give you an exact date, but I would assume sometime in the next several months,” the secretary of state said.