Iran's declaration to the International Atomic Energy Agency about its controversial nuclear programme looks to be comprehensive, the head of the UN agency said on Thursday. The IAEA’s governing board had set an October 31 deadline for Iran to come clean about the programme. ‘‘I think we are making good progress. Iran has submitted what (it) assured me to be a comprehensive and accurate declaration,’’ IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters in Ottawa. Too soon to say if Iran met UN demands: ElBaradei UNITED NATIONS: Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, said on Friday it was still too soon to say whether Iran had complied with a demand to prove that it had no secret nuclear weapons program. The Vienna-based IAEA had given Tehran a Friday deadline to prove that it had no secret arms program or be reported to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Iran submitted a declaration to the IAEA on October 23, detailing its nuclear activities which Washington suspects are a smokescreen for building atomic weapons. ‘‘We are still going through a lot of activities, we have inspection teams in Iran. It is too early, but I hope that we will be able to verify what the Iranians have assured us — that this is a comprehensive and accurate declaration,’’ ElBaradei said. ‘‘They are cooperating, but again, we still have a lot of work to do, and I hope the cooperation will continue,’’ he said. (Reuters) ‘‘I think I could say that at first glance the report is comprehensive but we still have to do a lot of fine-tuning, we we still have to do a lot of questioning, and that is why we are there right now and we will continue to be there doing an inspection for quite a few months in fact.’’ Iran is allowing UN inspectors to examine thousands of imported uranium enrichment machinery parts to determine the origin of the traces of weapons-grade uranium found earlier this year, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday. ElBaradei did not say whether the declaration answered all the IAEA’s questions. Diplomats said UN officials had yet to verify if the answers were true and complete. Last week, Iran agreed to freeze uranium enrichment and to sign the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, allowing snap inspections of its nuclear sites. ‘‘I will expect that, next week, they will send me a letter requesting they will conclude an additional protocol, which also would be a very positive development,’’ ElBaradei said after talks with Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham. A spokeswoman for the Vienna-based IAEA said the declaration contained ‘‘a great deal of information addressing key areas of Iran’s past nuclear programme which IAEA inspectors had raised questions about.’’ ‘‘Whether it provides all the answers has yet to be verified,’’ said Melissa Fleming. A Vienna-based diplomat closely following the IAEA inspections in Iran said he expected Tehran had complied with the agency’s demand for information to the extent that it ‘‘at least gave some kind of answer’’ to all the questions raised. These questions included a full picture of Tehran’s uranium programme, nuclear import and export lists and other information. The IAEA has been keen to have details about the origin of centrifuge parts, which Iran says it bought on the black market and blames for contaminating sites where the IAEA found traces of uranium. (Reuters)
