Iran offered to implement additional steps to build confidence in its nuclear programme if the United Nations nuclear watchdog takes the nuclear issue off its agenda, Tehran's ambassador said Thursday, reported dpa.
Iran had answered all the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) questions regarding alleged military nuclear studies, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA, told journalists.
"This matter is over," he said outside the IAEA's Board of Governors meeting.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday it was "regrettable" that the IAEA has not made the expected progress in clarifying indications that Tehran's nuclear programme had a military dimension.
Once Iran's nuclear file is removed from the IAEA's agenda, and once routine nuclear inspections resume, "Iran shall show more flexibility taking voluntary steps" as proposed by ElBaradei, Soltanieh told the 35-nation IAEA board.
Among the measures Iran could take are inspections of sites that the IAEA currently has no access to, he said.
ElBaradei has repeatedly asked Tehran to let his organization visit additional officials and sites, in order to determine the peaceful nature of Iran's past and present nuclear activities.
The United States ambassador to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, told the board on Thursday that "Iran has yet to provide any real answers to the IAEA's questions."
Documents provided to nuclear inspectors by Western intelligence agencies indicate that past Iranian activities and procurements related to missiles, high explosives testing and nuclear materials might point to a nuclear weapons effort.
Most countries represented on the IAEA board called on Iran on Wednesday to heed the UN Security Council's demands for halting its uranium enrichment programme.
"We'll never give up these activities," Soltanieh responded on Thursday.