In the report, published on Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said: "The agency has serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme. "After assessing carefully and critically the extensive information available to it, the agency finds the information to be, overall, credible. This information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."
The Vienna-based agency said it possessed information on Iran's work "on the development of an indigenous design of a nuclear weapon including the testing of components". The IAEA, whose board could decide to report Tehran to the UN Security Council next week, called on Iran "to engage substantively with the agency without delay for the purpose of providing clarifications." Iran, which says its nuclear programme is peaceful and which has been hit by four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions, dismissed the new IAEA report prior to its publication, saying it was based on falsified information. The report comes amid rising speculation that Israel might launch a pre-emptive military strike in an attempt to knock out Iranian nuclear facilities. Russian 'serious doubts' Russia criticised the report, saying it would reduce hopes for dialogue with Tehran and suggesting it was aimed to scuttle the chances for a diplomatic solution. "We have serious doubts about the justification for steps to reveal contents of the report to a broad public, primarily because it is precisely now that certain chances for the renewal of dialogue between the 'sextet' of international mediators and Tehran have begun to appear," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington DC, said: "This is a report the US wanted the IAEA to come out with. We expect the Obama administration to use this report on the international stage to impose stricter sanctions... but to get that, they need China and Russia to get on board." A senior US administration official told Al Jazeera: "The IAEA report does not assert that Iran has resumed a full-scale nuclear weapons programme, nor does it have a conclusion about how advanced those activities are, but clearly indicates there are activities of concern." "I think going forward… this report will further underscore that Iran is the only [Non-Proliferation Treaty] signatory that is unable to convince the IAEA of the peaceful intent of its programme. "That, in and of itself, further isolates Iran within the international community. I think it's incumbent on Iran to answer the very serious questions raised by this report." |
1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period. March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper, The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s Hsa-tu-gaw (the Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of Sgaw , is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian Dhamma Thadinsa (the Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
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