The UN nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting the Islamic Republic's scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian reported in its Friday edition. Meanhwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Tehran was preparing to give the IAEA more details of its response to proposals from the major powers for the supply of nuclear fuel. The newspaper, citing what it describes as “previously unpublished documentation” from an International Atomic Energy Agency compiled dossier, said Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of a “two-point implosion” device. The IAEA said in September it has no proof Iran has or once had a covert atomic bomb program. The Vienna-based IAEA was not immediately available for comment Thursday. Iran's Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) were also unavailable for comment on the issue when contacted by Reuters. The Guardian report said that even the existence of two-point implosion nuclear warhead technology is officially secret in both the US and Britain. The technology allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads, making it easier to put a warhead on a missile, the newspaper said. “We have some more details which we have to give to the IAEA,” state television quoted Mottaki as saying on its website. “We have three options – enrich the fuel ourselves, buy it directly or exchange our uranium for fuel,” he said. “They have to choose from these options. Given the need of Iran to have the fuel, my view is that they (the IAEA and the major powers) will accept another round of discussions.” In his sermon at the main weekly prayers in Tehran Friday, hard-line cleric Ahmad Khatami asked what guarantee Iran had that it would get the fuel if it shipped out 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium in one go first as proposed. “What guarantee do we have that if we deliver our enriched uranium, we will get the fuel?” he asked. “If they want to harm our rights, our response will be to enrich the fuel ourselves.”
