IAEA suspends nuclear aid for Iran

Friday, March 9, 2007 

Governors of the UN nuclear agency IAEA approved cuts in technical aid to Iran in accordance with UN sanctions. The move reflected a UN Security Council resolution that bans the transfer of technology or expertise that might aid in producing nuclear fuel.

Of 55 technical aid programs to Iran, 22 where suspended. These consist of four national programs to Iran and 18 regional or trans-regional programs that involve the country. The board did not suspend 22 regional programs that involve Iran, nor did it suspend 11 national programs all of which focus on medical and agricultural radio-pharmaceuticals and isotopes.

Ali Akbar Velayati, international affairs advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s decision was "politically-motivated".

Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA , said his nation will not stop uranium enrichment activities and that suspended programs are not part of Iran's nuclear enrichment program and the sanctions will have no effect on it. He stated “The enrichment program has been indigenous and independent, nobody, even the IAEA, have co-operated or worked with us. Therefore these projects will continue as planned under the supervision of the IAEA.”

IAEA board members joined in supporting IAEA's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei call for a "double suspension" where both enrichment and sanctions would stop concurrently.

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This article is being developed. You can contribute or discuss its development. If it is ready to be checked, you can action=do&label=submit it for review&verb:button-local-field-verb&form:button-local-field-form&subject:button-local-field-subject&‍cols=&rows=&editxcols=&rows=&Template:Assistant:Submit/formxTemplate:Assistant:Submit/formcols=&rows=&IAEA suspends nuclear aid for IranxSubmit for review. This is not a way to ask others to expand or finish the article! If original reporting is contained in this article, you must provide notes.

Sources

• Mark Heinrich and Karin Strohecker. "IAEA governors approve nuclear aid cut to Iran" — Reuters, March 8, 2007
• Mu Xuequan. "Iran: IAEA aid cut "politically-motivated"" — Xinhua News Agency, March 8, 2007
• Du Xiaodan. "IAEA board approves suspending technical aid to Iran" — CCTV, 03-09-2007