WAR.WIRE
Britain says unsure of Iran's nuclear intentions
LONDON (AFP) Jul 04, 2004
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Sunday he was unsure whether to believe Iran's insistence that is has no intention of trying to build nuclear weapons.

"I'm not sure, is the answer. And nobody is," Straw said in an interview with BBC radio.

"Where they have not helped themselves is in not providing full and frank disclosures to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," he added.

Iran insists a site in Tehran, alleged by the United States to have been used for developing weapons of mass destruction, was in fact a former research and development military" installation, IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei said last week.

Meanwhile, Iran's new conservative-controlled parliament is considering pushing through a bill that would force the Islamic regime to resume uranium enrichment activities, a senior deputy told AFP on July 1.

The proposed bill, still under discussion, would scrap a deal signed last October with Britain, France and Germany under which Iran agreed to make several "confidence-building" gestures to the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog.

Depending on its purity, enriched uranium can be used as both fuel for a civilian nuclear reactor and for a nuclear bomb. Iran insists it is only interested in generating electricity.

WAR.WIRE