U.S. Urges Iran to Cooperate in U.N. Nuke Probe

Washington urged Iran Thursday to engage with a stalled U.N. nuclear probe, saying it was crucial to a major accord under discussion between Iran and world powers this week in New York.

Laura Kennedy, the U.S. representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Washington was "concerned... by the pace of progress" in the Vienna body's investigation.

"Concerns about the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program must be addressed as part of any comprehensive" deal between Iran and world powers, Kennedy said.

"Only when this happens will it be possible to have confidence that Iran's nuclear program is and will remain exclusively peaceful," she told reporters at a meeting of the IAEA.

The IAEA regularly inspects Iran's nuclear facilities, but it also suspects that Tehran's program had "possible military dimensions" before 2003 and possibly since.

Iran denies this, telling the IAEA in a letter in August that "most of the issues" in its probe are "mere allegations and do not merit consideration", according to the agency.

Iran agreed in May to provide information on two out of 12 suspect areas but it failed to do so by a mutually-agreed deadline of August 25. It also stopped short of proposing new measures by September 2 as requested, the IAEA says.

Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, said however Thursday that Tehran had already told the watchdog that the deadline would not be met due to the "complexity," "invalidity of the agency's information... and lack of substantiated evidence."

"We plan to have a meeting very soon (with the IAEA) on the two practical measures (the two areas), and as soon as these issues are clarified and closed we can start to implement new practical measures," Najafi told reporters.

Iran has long complained that the allegations are based on faulty intelligence provided by the likes of the Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's Mossad -- intelligence that it says it has not been allowed to study.

Some analysts have also questioned the validity of some of the claims, which the IAEA called "overall, credible" in a 2011 assessment.

The comments came a day before the resumption of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany in New York.

Under their mooted agreement, the powers want Tehran to scale down its nuclear program to ease fears it might get the bomb after 12 years of rising tensions.

The Islamic republic, which says its nuclear program is to generate electricity and treat cancer patients, wants relief from painful sanctions. The deadline to reach a deal is November 24.