Iran wants credit for unmasking nuclear black market

VIENNA, Austria -- Tehran should be recognized for its role in unmasking the nuclear black market, a senior Iranian envoy said Wednesday, challenging criticism that his country was not working closely enough on the issue with the U.N. atomic watchdog agency.

Sirus Nasseri suggested Iran was entitled to supply itself with nuclear technology by all means available -- including illicit channels if it is blocked from legal means by international embargoes.

An International Atomic Energy Agency investigation of Iran has revealed that much of the country's nuclear program came from the atomic black market headed by scientist A.Q. Khan, including technology used in uranium enrichment. That process can create fuel or the core of nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it wants to enrich uranium only to generate nuclear power, but froze its enrichment program last year as it held talks with France, Britain, and Germany to reduce concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

While IAEA officials say Iran may be holding back on some key details of what was bought, Nasseri highlighted information Tehran has provided to IAEA investigators on the black market. Despite suggesting that countries slapped with embargoes had no choice but to go underground, he told reporters: "It's a consensus that this sort of clandestine activity should be arrested, stopped."

The U.N. nuclear watchdog is pushing Iran to cooperate more with nuclear investigators, and agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told board members Tuesday that more information was needed about Iran's uranium enrichment program.

Iran became a concern for the IAEA in 2003, when revelations of nearly two decades of secret nuclear activities surfaced. The work included uranium enrichment.

Iran insists it wants to enrich uranium only to generate nuclear power but froze its enrichment program and related activities late last year as it held talks with France, Britain and Germany meant to reduce concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

ElBaradei, in his opening statement to the board meeting, also urged Iran to allow agency visits to two sites -- a military complex where the United States says Iran may be testing high-explosive components for nuclear weapons, and another area where the agency believes Iran has stored equipment that can be used both for peaceful and nuclear weapons-related purposes.

In a separate issue that will be dealt with at the meeting, Saudi Arabia said it wouldn't bow to pressure from the United States, the European Union and Australia to allow nuclear inspectors into the country, according to a confidential EU document made available to The Associated Press.

Saudi officials want to sign a deal with the IAEA that would make their country exempt from inspections on grounds that there is nothing of proliferation concern to inspect. Such deals, called small-quantities protocols, are in effect for more than 70 countries.

The EU document said the Saudis would cooperate only if all other countries with the protocol in place did the same. The diplomat who made the memo available to the AP is accredited to the agency and insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to share it with the media.

The Saudis insist they have no plans to develop nuclear weapons. However, in the past two decades, the country has been linked to prewar Iraq's nuclear program, to Pakistan and to Khan.