West says Iran deceives world on nukes

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West says Iran deceives world on nukes

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The US and its Western allies bluntly accused Iran of deceiving the world on nuclear arms.

19 November,2011 05:15 am

The US and its Western allies bluntly accused Iran on Friday of deceiving the world on nuclear arms, as the UN atomic agency passed a new resolution criticizing Tehrans nuclear defiance.Iran shot back that the Wests allegations were based on fabricated American, Israeli, British and French intelligence fed to the International Atomic Energy Agency to try and discredit the Islamic Republic.The unusually tough exchanges were bound to raise international tensions over Irans nuclear program even though the Western statements emphasized that the preferred solution was through diplomacy.Statements delivered to the IAEAs 35-nation board by the US, and on behalf of Germany, Britain and France, contained no mention of military action an option that has not been discounted by either Israel or the US if Tehran refuses to stop activities that can be used for nuclear weapons.Still, they pulled no punches, drawing heavily on a recent IAEA report based on intelligence from more than 10 nations that concluded that some alleged clandestine activities by Iran could not be used for any other purpose than making nuclear arms.It is no longer within the bounds of credulity to claim that Irans nuclear activities are solely peaceful, said Glyn Davies, the chief US delegate to the IAEA, adding: There is little doubt that Iran ... at the very least, wants to position itself for a nuclear weapons capability.For the three European nations, German chief delegate Ruediger Luedeking said Iranian actions, ...deepened disbelief in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program.With the Nov. 8 report adding substantial weight to previous alleged evidence of Iranian nuclear weapons research and development, dismissing such suspicions as false and fabricated as Iran has done in the past is neither plausible nor believable, Luedeking added.