Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis    

    TEHRAN, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani criticized International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei for raising baseless concerns in his latest report on Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

    "If the agency were determined to deal with their concerns about Iran's peaceful nuclear program, they must do it in the context of the Modality Plan signed by the two parties," Larijani was quoted as saying.

Iran's Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani listens as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (none pictured) speaks to lawmakers in the Iranian parliament in Tehran Aug. 5, 2008. Larijani criticized International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei for raising baseless concerns in his latest report on Iran. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    IAEA's duty is supervision, however, the UN nuclear watchdog's report expresses concerns "extra than the nuclear agency's mandate," he said.

    Larijani referred to ElBaradei's report as "ambiguous."

    "It seems we will hear double-standard statements from the agency forever," he told IRNA, adding that "they have derailed Iran's nuclear program from technical issue to political ends."

    He said the IAEA report has been influenced by the U.S. accusations.

    ElBaradei submitted two reports on Iranian and Syrian nuclear issues to IAEA Board of Directors on Wednesday.

    The report said that Iran continues to carry out uranium enrichment and possesses a large amount of enriched uranium.

    However, the enriched uranium currently owned is the uranium with lowly purity which can only be used for nuclear power plants and not the uranium with highly purity for making atomic bombs.

    The U.S. ambassador to IAEA Gregory Schulte said on Friday Iran is only a few steps away from making nuclear explosives used for atomic bombs, to which he is "very uneasy."

    Talking about the latest ElBaradei report on Wednesday, Schulte said that Iran is currently only able to extract lowly enriched uranium, but it is only a few steps away from making highly enriched uranium that is suitable for atomic bombs.

    The United States and its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program.

    Iran has denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

IAEA: Iran continues uranium enrichment
 
    VIENNA, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran continues carrying out industrial uranium enrichment, said an investigation report circulated by IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei to the agency's Board of Governors in Vienna on Wednesday evening.

    The investigation report on Iran's nuclear issues said that the nuclear center at Iran's Natanz has already established 6,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium, in which 3,800 are in operation.