Agency: Iran has warhead text

VIENNA, Austria – The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said in a report Tuesday that Iran obtained documents and drawings on the black market that serve no other purpose than to make an atomic warhead. Tehran warned of an “end of diplomacy” if plans to refer it to the U.N. Security Council are carried out.

The report by the agency, ahead of a meeting of its 35-member board Thursday, also confirmed information recently provided by diplomats familiar with the Iran probe that Tehran has not started small-scale uranium enrichment since announcing it would earlier this month.

Nevertheless, the findings added to pressure to refer Tehran to the Security Council within days. Such a move, Iran said, would lead to a halt in surprise U.N. inspections beginning Saturday and prompt it to resume frozen nuclear activities.

“If it happens, the government will be required under the law to end the suspension of all nuclear activities it has voluntarily halted,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said late Tuesday.

Iran insists its nuclear program is civilian only and has no other purpose than to generate power. Enrichment can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the material needed to build a warhead.

The findings about the design obtained by Iran on the black market were contained in a confidential report for presentation to the 35-nation IAEA board and provided in full to the Associated Press.

The four-page report also criticized Iran for refusing to provide interviews with at least one nuclear scientist linked to the military and dismissing requests for information on “tests related to high explosives and the design of a missile re-entry vehicle, all of which could have a military nuclear dimension.”

A three-year IAEA probe has not found firm evidence to back assertions by the United States and others that Iran’s nuclear activities are a cover for an arms program but has not been able to dismiss such suspicions either.

In the brief report obtained Tuesday the agency said bluntly that the 15 pages of text and drawings showing how to cast fissile uranium into metal were “related to the fabrication of nuclear weapon components.”

The documents in question were given to Iran by members of the nuclear black market network, the IAEA said. Iran has claimed it did not ask for the documents but received them as part of other black market purchases.