BIASED IAEA REPORT

Iran accused the new head of the U.N. nuclear agency of issuing a misleading and unbalanced report on Iran’s atomic activities, saying he omitted important information. The International Atomic Energy Agency report, the first issued since Yukiya Amano became director-general, voiced concern Iran may be actively trying to design a nuclear-armed missile now. The report, which brought expressions of alarm from Western powers and Russia, used unusually forthright language and took a harder-hitting line on Iran than those of Amano’s predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei, who left office three months ago. Amano urged Iran to cooperate with the agency without delay to verify that its uranium enrichment programme was solely for peaceful uses, as Tehran maintains. Iran’s IAEA ambassador, Ali Asghar Soltanieh said that the report was not factual or balanced.