U.N. Agency Says Iran Is Impeding Inspections 

By http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=DAVID+CRAWFORD&bylinesearch=true DAVID CRAWFORD And http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=JAY+SOLOMON&bylinesearch=true JAY SOLOMON 
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010 
WSJ
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The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran is hampering the United Nations nuclear watchdog's effort to monitor Tehran's nuclear program.
In an 11-page report circulated to diplomats from IAEA member countries on Monday, the agency reported Iran has failed to provide key information on activity at several nuclear facilities and has banned two U.N. inspectors, whose work the agency defended. 
The U.N. Security Council in June approved a fourth round of sanctions against Iran in an effort to curb its program of uranium enrichment, which the U.S. and others say is aimed at weapons development, and force Tehran to cooperate with the IAEA. Further sanctions by the U.S., European Union and others followed.
IAEA inspectors routinely verify the peaceful nature of nuclear activity at facilities around the world. Iran formally agreed to cooperate with the agency when it signed and ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty about four decades ago. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful in nature and intended to produce nuclear energy.
Obama administration officials said the report's conclusions were largely known. The report reaffirms the concerns we've had about enrichment all along and again shows that Iran continues to not cooperate with the IAEA, said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. This justifies why we continue to put pressure on Iran through mounting economic sanctions—a strategy we believe is working.
There is a growing belief in the U.S. and some European capitals that the mounting sanctions are starting to take a toll on the Iranian economy.
Limits on IAEA inspections, however, make the agency less capable of certifying that Iran isn't conducting covert nuclear work, said officials close to the IAEA efforts. The agency now has an increasingly limited ability to understand what activities Iran is conducting in some of its most important nuclear installations, the officials said. 
Iran's effort to bar certain IAEA staff from conducting safeguard work adds to pressure on the inspectors, said a senior diplomat familiar with the IAEA's work in Iran.
In a June letter to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, Iran said the two banned inspectors had made false and wrong statements about its activities.
The ban related to an inspection of a Tehran research laboratory in January, after which two inspectors reported a lab official discussing a process used to create uranium metal, an ingredient of nuclear weapons. Iran later denied it was conducting such research at the facility and ordered the two inspectors banned from the country. The IAEA said the work of its inspectors is professional and impartial.
The IAEA told Iran in July that the banning of inspectors was impeding its work. 
The new IAEA report on Iran was compiled in preparation for the IAEA Board of Governors conference later this month. The report will also be forwarded to the Security Council, which has demanded Iran cooperate with the IAEA effort to verify the nature of its nuclear program.
U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that Tehran's production of nuclear fuel has expanded at rates slower than had been expected. Western officials attribute the slowdown to a combination of political calculations by Tehran, relatively low quality centrifuges, and U.S. and Israeli-led sabotage operations.
There remains a fear, however that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon in as quickly as a year if it decided to rapidly and covertly begin converting its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to weapons-grade material.
Separately, the central bank of the United Arab Emirates is studying the economic impact of U.N. sanctions and has asked lenders in the U.A.E. to declare remittances sent to Iran on a monthly basis, where it previously kept track of remittances on a quarterly basis, bankers said Monday.
—Nour Malas contributed to this article. 
Write to David Crawford at mailto:david.crawford@wsj.com david.crawford@wsj.com