UN atomic body to cut Iran aid

The UN's nuclear agency has ratified cuts in technical aid to Iran over concern that Tehran might be trying to build nuclear …

The UN's nuclear agency has ratified cuts in technical aid to Iran over concern that Tehran might be trying to build nuclear bombs.

The move by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) followed UN sanctions passed in December that ban transfers of technology or expertise to Iran that might be of use in producing nuclear fuel.

By consensus, the board adopted a decision by the IAEA's Secretariat to freeze or curb 22 of the 55 aid projects, closing ranks on an issue that earlier had split the governing body.

Western powers such as the United States and France, who bankroll the IAEA's special aid programmes and drew up sanctions against Iran, originally demanded more sweeping reductions

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Only two other states in the IAEA's 50-year history have been stripped of nuclear aid over fear about possible diversions into bomb making - North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Iran says its nuclear programme, centred on uranium enrichment which can yield fuel for power plants, or bombs if taken to higher degrees, is meant only to generate electricity.

Western powers suspect a hidden agenda to build nuclear arms, and four years of IAEA investigations - often stonewalled by Iran - have failed to verify Iran's intentions are entirely peaceful.