9 June 2003

U.S. Calls on Iran to Disclose All Aspects of Its Nuclear Program

State Department studying report on program from IAEA

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States is calling on Iran to "disclose all aspects of its nuclear program." Boucher was speaking to the press at the State Department's regular briefing on June 6.

In response to a question about the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) report on Iran, Boucher said the report had been given out to IAEA members, but he declined to describe its contents. The IAEA Board of Governors meeting begins June 16.

"Iran's clandestine nuclear program represents a serious challenge to regional stability, the entire international community and to the global nonproliferation regime," Boucher said.

Following is an excerpt on the IAEA report and the Iranian nuclear program, from the June 6 State Department briefing:

(begin excerpt)

QUESTION: Reports are beginning to leak out in Vienna of the IAEA report on Iran. Have you seen the report? What does it say, and what do you think of it?

MR. BOUCHER: We have the report. It's been given out, I think, to members. And so we are studying the report. It's not going to be for us to describe what's in it, or to quote it, or to otherwise leak it. But what I would say is we have known for some time that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. We have said that. We've said that publicly. We have brought our concerns to the international community. We have brought our concerns to the attention of other governments. So we think this report can provide important insights into the nature of the Iranian nuclear program and the problems that exist concerning Iran's safeguard obligations.

We strongly support the efforts of the International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General in Iran. We call on Iran to disclose all aspects of its nuclear program and, particularly, note that if Iran's program were indeed peaceful, it should be no problem for Iran to disclose all aspects of its program.

We look forward to close consultations with other members of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors. We think the report and Iran's programs themselves are deeply troubling and need to be studied carefully by all members, and that we need to look at it seriously together.

Iran's clandestine nuclear program represents a serious challenge to regional stability, the entire international community and to the global nonproliferation regime. And we'll work with other members of the agency board, as we move forward.

(end excerpt)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)