Iranian lawmaker says IAEA report “political move”

PanARMENIAN.Net - A report by the UN nuclear watchdog that accused Iran of doubling the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges it has in an underground bunker was politically motivated, an Iranian lawmaker said on Friday, Aug 31.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Thursday indicated that despite threat of an Israeli or U.S. military strike on Tehran's nuclear facilities, the Islamic Republic was rapidly increasing the enrichment capacity of its Fordow site, buried deep underground to withstand any such hit.

"Publishing this report while Iran is holding the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting does not mean anything other than it was a political move aimed at overshadowing the meeting in Tehran," lawmaker Kazem Jalali told the ISNA news agency.

Major powers accuse Iran of trying to build bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear program. Tehran denies this, saying it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

"It seems that this report is a scenario for psychological warfare because Iran was able to show its authority and international position at the NAM summit," said Jalali, a member of parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee, Reuters reported.