IAEA documents on Iran’s nuclear program lack authenticity

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has said that the documents that the International Atomic Energy Agency will release in the near future in regard to Iran's nuclear program lack authenticity, MNA reported.

It has been said that the agency will release documents in its next report that will ostensibly show that Iran is carrying out nuclear missiles studies.

"We have no problem with the release of documents but we believe that these documents are invalid," Salehi said in a joint press conference with his Burundian counterpart Augustin Nsanze in Tehran on Saturday.

The foreign minister likened the alleged nuclear weapons studies claimed by the IAEA to fake money and said, "When currency is forged it has all the characteristics of real currency but it is fake and the documents claimed by the agency are also like this."

Salehi said the IAEA had already raised such claims, but the Islamic Republic answered all the questions asked by the UN body.

The agency should not work under the influence of major powers, he said, adding that the IAEA has already published such documents and will continue to publish them.

The chief diplomat said such measures which are intended to ratchet up pressure on the Islamic Republic are politically motivated.

He went on to say that the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear sites but has never found any evidence of diversion to weapons production.

On U.S. officials' claim that they recently thwarted a plot by two men linked to Iran's security agencies to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, Salehi said, "Iran, in a protest letter to the United Nations Secretary General (Ban Ki-moon), has protested about the U.S. conspiracies" and will release the relevant documents in due course.

During the press conference, Salehi was also asked to comment on the remarks that Israeli President Shimon Peres made on October 4, in which he said that a military option to stop the Islamic republic from obtaining what he called "nuclear weapons" was nearer.

Salehi said that there is no need to respond to such baseless remarks.

On the relations between Iran and Burundi, Salehi said that the relations are good and announced that the two countries have agreed to open embassies in each others' countries.

He also stated that Tehran is keen to expand its ties with Bujumbura.

The Burundian ambassador to Tehran also said that his country is interested in enhancing ties with the Islamic Republic and predicted that the embassies will be opened in January 2011.


/Trend/