U.S. seeks new sanctions for Iran

A U.N. report says Iran is still enriching uranium.

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — The U.S. called for new sanctions against Iran after a U.N. report Thursday that said the Tehran regime has been generally truthful about key aspects of its past nuclear activities, but is continuing to enrich uranium.

The International Atomic Energy Agency also said restrictions the Iranians put on U.N. inspectors two years ago mean it still cannot rule out that Iran has a secret weapons program, as suspected by Washington and its allies.

An Iranian envoy denounced the idea of further U.N. Security Council sanctions, saying the IAEA assessment shows it is cooperating.

The United States and Britain noted the report confirmed that Iran continues to ignore the Security Council’s demands that it suspend uranium enrichment until questions about the nuclear program’s intent are resolved.

“We believe that selective cooperation is not good enough,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said, in calling for new sanctions.

Britain’s Foreign Office said that “if Iran wants to restore trust in its program, it must come clean on all outstanding issues without delay.” It said Tehran must restore stronger inspection rights for IAEA teams and mothball enrichment activities to avoid new sanctions.

The top Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said the report shows a third round of U.N. penalties would be “illegal action.” He said Iran answered all the questions by the IAEA and made “good progress” in cooperating with the agency.

In light of the IAEA report, “many accusations are now baseless,” Jalili said, referring to the suspicions voiced by the U.S. and its allies that Tehran is secretly pursuing nuclear weapons.

“Those powers who base their accusations on this I hope will reconsider what they say,” he said.

Much of the 10-page report, which was made available to The Associated Press, focused on the history of Iran’s black-market nuclear procurements and past development of uranium enrichment technology, which can produce material for nuclear warheads.