Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:00:42 GMT
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says there is no proof that Iran seeks an atom bomb. |
"There is no proof that Iran even has decided to make a bomb. The West should respect and reach out to the Islamic Republic," he told the Brussels Forum conference on Saturday.
The US, Israel and their European allies -- Britain, France and Germany -- accuse the country of pursuing military goals. Tehran says the only aim of its nuclear program is to make use of the civilian applications of the technology.
Iran denies the allegation that it is seeking to build a bomb and argues that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) -- to which it is a signatory - grants it the right to a domestic, civilian nuclear industry.
Lavrov said the UN nuclear watchdog was the best-placed international body to monitor Iran's nuclear activities and decide whether the country might try to covertly develop a weapon under the guise of peaceful work.
"As long as the (International Atomic Energy Agency) IAEA works in Iran, it monitors all these centrifuges which produce low enriched uranium for the fuel purpose," he said.
"To change it to the weapon grade uranium you need to do manipulations which would be immediately known by cameras," added Lavrov.
The latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that Iran has produced a total of some 1,010 kilograms of low enriched uranium (LEU) hexafluoride as of January 31, 2009.
It confirmed that Iran has only managed to enrich uranium-235 to a level "less than 5 percent."
Uranium, the fuel for a nuclear power plant, can serve in military purposes if enriched to high levels. Nuclear arms production requires an enrichment level of above 90 percent.
In order for Iran to build a nuclear weapon, it needs to reconfigure its existing centrifuge enrichment plant at Natanz to reprocess LEU into weapons-grade HEU, or build clandestine facilities without the knowledge of UN inspectors.
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