VIENNA, Aug 30: The United States insisted on Iran suspending uranium enrichment in order to win international confidence, downplaying a UN report on Thursday that Tehran is answering questions about its nuclear work.

US ambassador Gregory Schulte said the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency “would welcome resolution of troubling questions about Iran’s nuclear activities but thus far for the most part Iran has only made promises.” “Even if Iran comes clean on the past, its nuclear file cannot be closed until the agency has full insight into the present,” Schulte said.

He said “Iran’s nuclear file will remain open as long as Iran refuses to meet its international obligation to suspend activities of international concern.” The United States has accused Iran of pretending to cooperate with the IAEA in order to avoid further UN sanctions, and has stressed that Tehran is still defying UN Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment, which makes fuel for civilian reactors but also atom bomb material.

Schulte said that since the IAEA’s last report in May on Iran, the Islamic Republic “has increased by 50 per cent the number of (centrifuge) cascades running with uranium hexafluoride in the once secret underground bunkers in Natanz” to enrich uranium.

“This is of serious concern to the IAEA board and the UN Security Council,” Schulte said.

“If Iran’s leaders truly want to close the nuclear file they would cooperate fully and unconditionally with the IAEA and suspend activities that are not necessary for civil purposes but are necessary to build bombs,” the US ambassador said.

The report by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said however that Iran continues to defy two UN Security Council resolutions to cease enriching uranium.—AFP