IAEA Rebuffs Congress Over Iran

The UN's nuclear watchdog has attacked the US Congress for an "outrageous and dishonest" report on Iran's nuclear programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the congressional report published last month contained "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information", and it took "strong exception" to "incorrect and misleading" claims in the report that the IAEA was covering up some doubts about Iran's nuclear intentions. A letter from the IAEA to Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the intelligence select committee of the House of Representatives, was leaked to the Washington Post yesterday.

Washington has been keen to increase pressure on Iran at a time when Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany - the other main negotiators over Iran's nuclear programme - are more cautious.

The report is said to have been written by a Republican member of the committee known to have hardline views on Iran and who based it on published material, rather than secret intelligence.

The strongest part of the IAEA's response was to the report's account of the departure of former nuclear inspector Chris Charlier from the IAEA.

The report claimed Mr Charlier was removed by the IAEA director, Mohamed ElBaradei, at the behest of Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, and there was an "unstated IAEA policy barring officials from telling the whole truth about the Iranian nuclear programme". The letter said these statements were "outrageous and dishonest" and the IAEA's founding rules stated that inspectors could only be sent to a country with the agreement of the country's government.