Iranian FM Manouchehr Mottaki said that Tehran had sent a formal
protest to the United States for its "espionage" over Iran's
nuclear program.
Mottaki said that a U.S. intelligence report on Iran's nuclear
case earlier this week showed that "they (the Americans) have
obtained the information through espionage satellite and espionage
activities," the official IRNA news agency reported.
"The Foreign Ministry has sent a letter to the Swiss Embassy in
Tehran the day the report was issued, as caretaker of the U.S.
interests, calling for explanations on the U.S. espionage on Iran'
s nuclear issue," Mottaki was quoted as saying.
He also accused the report released on Monday of claiming that
Iran had a nuclear weapons program before 2003, saying "there are
both facts and lies in the report of the Americans."
"Americans have raised the claim just to save face and we hope
they would come to the point not to tell anything without any proof
and justification," he said.
The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which came out on
Monday, found out that Iran stopped an effort to develop nuclear
weapons in the fall of 2003, but it continued to enrich
uranium.
The latest report, however, said that Iran could reverse that
decision and eventually produce a nuclear weapon if it wants to do
so.?
U.S. President George W. Bush has said there was a "great
discovery" as early as August for the U.S. intelligence agencies to
form the recent report, without disclosing the details.
The Washington Post has said that the new information included
intercepts of conversations between Iranian military
commanders.
Iranian officials have applauded the U.S. report as "proof" of
the "peaceful nature" of Iran's nuclear program.
On Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the report was
a "great victory for the Iranian people against the great
powers."
The United States and some other Western countries have been
accusing Iran of trying to develop atomic bombs under a civilian
cover. But Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful
purposes only.
Tehran has already been imposed of two rounds U.N. Security
Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
(China Daily December 9, 2007)
