Remarks by Assistant Secretary Philip Crowley on the IAEA Report on Iran (Excerpts)

March 1, 2010

Weapon Program: 

  • Nuclear

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QUESTION: Iran's supreme leader had some pretty strong words for the IAEA over the weekend alleging the report, the nuclear report, was biased, and took a lot of the criticism out on the head of the IAEA, this - the new guy, Amano. So are you encouraged by this more tenuous relationship that Iran has with the IAEA now? And do you have anything to back up that nuclear report --

MR. CROWLEY: Am I encouraged by --

QUESTION: Yeah.

MR. CROWLEY: -- the tenuous relationship?

QUESTION: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a shift, I would say. And more importantly, do you have anything to back up the nuclear report, i.e., like the NIE? Anything to sort of suggest they're on the right track?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, I think we have lots of questions and information that backs up the IAEA report. Of course, the IAEA has had inspectors in Iran and they are the ones who have raised the concerns about the inability to answer the questions that we all have about Iran's programs, its facilities, its lack of transparency on the nuclear issue.

I think it's very important - this was a report by the IAEA but it represents not just the concerns the United States has but the concerns the international community has. So it's unfortunate that the Ayatollah might try to once again create this satanic frame. This is about questions that the world at large has about Iran, the role its playing in the region, and its nuclear concerns. No one wants to see a nuclear arms race develop in the Middle East, but it would be better for Iran, rather than protesting this report, to come forward in a constructive way and answer the questions that the IAEA has on behalf of the international community as a whole.

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