UN nuclear chief urges Iran to address bomb concerns

Vienna: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog sought to put pressure on Iran on Monday to address concerns about its suspected atomic bomb research, three weeks after Tehran failed to meet a deadline for providing information about the issue.

Confirming the findings of a confidential report by the UN atomic agency earlier this month, Director General Yukiya Amano said Iran had not carried out two of the five transparency steps it had agreed to implement by Aug. 25.

“In order to resolve all outstanding issues, past and present, it is very important that Iran continues to implement, in a timely manner, all practical measures agreed … ,” he told the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The phrase “past and present” refers to the IAEA`s long-running investigation into suspicions, denied by Iran, that the country has worked on designing a nuclear weapon.