Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

    TEHRAN, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian nuclear official has said that a recent report by International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) Director General Mohamed El Baradei on Iran's nuclear program is 90 percent in favor of Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

    "The agency head tried to provide a moderate report despite existing pressures," Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization was quoted as saying Sunday evening. He added that the remaining 10 percent of the report was still related to some allegations raised against Iran." The agency has announced that on six outstanding cases the IAEA

    findings were in conformity with Iran explanations and it indicates the accuracy of Iran's reports and the closure of those cases," he said.

    He referred to the six cases as the plutonium tests, issues of Iran P1 and P2 centrifuges, the metal uranium documents, contamination in a technical university in Tehran, the Polonium210 and Gachin mine.

    The UN nuclear watchdog said Friday Iran had clarified the majority of open issues in its nuclear programs but the agency was still unable to give a definite verdict on Tehran's nuclear ambitions as the progress is not enough.

    However, France, Britain and Germany formally introduced to the UN Security Council Thursday a draft resolution that calls for further sanctions against Iran over its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear enrichment activities.

    The five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany are expected to meet in Washington on Monday to discuss the proposed third UN Security Council resolution over Iran's controversial nuclear programs.

    The UN Security Council has adopted two resolutions -- one in December 2006 and the other in March of 2007 -- in attempts to force Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities and to give up its nuclear programs.

    Iran has downplayed the effect of possible new sanctions, saying Tehran would show a "serious and logical reaction" if the UN Security Council issues a third resolution. Western countries have accused Iran of using a civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons, a charge repeatedly denied by Tehran.