Tehran’s Ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog Ali Asghar Soltanieh has provided more details about the nature of the Iranian nuclear program.

One week after the new International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Yukiya Amano, issued a report about Iran’s nuclear program, Soltanieh on Wednesday shed light on certain aspects of the Iranian nuclear work.

Amano, in his first report on Iran’s nuclear activities on February 18, once again verified the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran but called on Tehran to further discuss and cooperate on the issue of the alleged studies.

Iran reacted to the report, saying that, despite confirming the non-diversion of the country’s nuclear work, the report failed to mention Iran’s “explanations” and hence was “unbalanced.”

In an IAEA meeting on Wednesday, the Iranian envoy used rhetorical questions in a bid to enlighten the members about Iran’s 20 percent-enriched uranium and the issue of the alleged studies.

In his remarks, a copy of which was obtained by Press TV, Soltanieh asked if any new developments had taken place in the Iranian nuclear work indicating that it has been diverted to a military nuclear program.

“Since the previous report and since the new director general took the office, have the [International Atomic energy] Agency inspectors reported any new developments [in the Iranian nuclear program] except for the 20 percent uranium enrichment?” he asked.

“Did any critical developments pertaining to Iran’s nuclear work occur in the report of the former director general [Mohamed ElBaradei]? Did you find any nuclear material related to weapons, or indicative of any deviation toward military objectives,” he asked, adding that the answer was a definite no.

Soltanieh also asked the question as to whether any new information had been added to the issue of the alleged studies, which Iran considers as fabricated and devoid of any authentication.

The envoy said that Iran has only viewed the so-called evidence on the alleged studies in the form of “power point documents” and had found it lacking in credibility.

According to Soltanieh, Iran then provided a 117-page report and attended several meetings explaining why it called the document fabricated while the recent IAEA report suggested that Tehran had rejected the allegations without being cooperative enough with the IAEA.

He said that the new report should have mentioned that the issue of the alleged studies had not been authenticated, as confirmed by former IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, and that the so-called evidence on them did not bear any classified stamps, as confidential documents usually do.

Soltanieh then shifted to Iran’s 20 percent enrichment at its Natanz site.

Through correspondence between Iran and the IAEA, Iran informed the body that it wanted to enrich the uranium for Tehran’s research reactor and called on the IAEA to send inspectors to the country, he said.

The IAEA consequently informed Iran that the inspectors would be present in the country to remove the seals of the 30B cylinder containing LEU (Low Enriched Uranium).

Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), rejects the allegations of having military objectives in its nuclear program as politically motivated and says its nuclear work is totally peaceful and within the framework of the NPT.

The White House on Thursday said Iran’s declaration of producing first stock of enriched uranium for a research reactor was based “on politics”, and “not on physics.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran had produced the first stock of 20 percent enriched uranium at the Natanz enrichment facility.

But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs cast doubt on Ahmadinejad’s announcement.

“The Iranian nuclear program has undergone a series of problems throughout the year,” Gibbs said. “We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching.”

After potential suppliers failed to provide fuel for Tehran’s research reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer patients, Iran announced Tuesday it had started enriching uranium to the level of less than 20 percent.

The announcement prompted President Barack Obama to threaten Iran with “significant regime of sanctions.”

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran could not wait for Western countries to “waste time” as the Tehran research reactor ran out of fuel.

He said a fuel swap with Western countries did not require Iran to relinquish other ways of supplying the fuel.

The United Nations atomic watchdog has convened for a two-day meeting to discuss the Iranian nuclear program.

According to AFP, the 35-member board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began two days of deliberations covering various topics, including Iran, North Korea, Syria and a Russian proposal for a fuel bank.

It will be the last meeting under the leadership of Egyptian diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei, who will step down as the IAEA Director General on November 30, after 12 years in office.

The meeting comes after ElBaradei rejected a proposal by the Iranian government to exchange low-enriched uranium (LEU) in a simultaneous swap on Iranian territory.

Speaking at the opening of the two-day meeting, ElBaradei said he was “disappointed” by Iran’s refusal to accept the IAEA-proposed deal, which envisages Iran shipping out most of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to be further enriched and returned to the country for the Tehran medical research reactor.

“I am disappointed that Iran has not so far agreed to the original proposal or the alternative modalities, both of which I believe are balanced and fair and would greatly help to alleviate the concerns relating to Iran’s nuclear program,” he told the IAEA governing board.

The Iranian officials have firmly rejected the idea, mainly because there are no concrete guarantees that the country would in fact receive the nuclear fuel it requires.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has announced that Iran’s enriched uranium supply will not be sent abroad to be exchanged with the fuel rods needed for the Tehran medical reactor.

He instead said that although Iran would prefer to buy the 20 percent-enriched uranium rather than exchanging it with the LEU, the country would consider the latter option as long as it takes place inside the Iranian territory.

“US allies in the Middle East should strengthen their respective militaries in order to deter Iran from continuing its suspected nuclear weapons program,” US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in an interview published by Al-Jazeera on Tuesday.

“One of the pathways to get the Iranians to change their approach on the nuclear issue, is to persuade them that moving down that path will actually jeopardize their security, not enhance it,” he told the station. “The more that our Arab friends and allies can straighten their security capabilities, the more they can strengthen their co-operation, both with each other and with us, I think sends the signal to the Iranians that this path they’re on is not going to advance Iranian security but in fact could weaken it,” Gates said.

When asked about the perceived “double-standard” regarding US policy towards the suspected Israeli nuclear program, versus the aggressive action currently being employed against the Iranian program, Gates defended the American behavior. “First of all, it’s the Iranian leadership that has said it wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth,” he said. “Those threats have not been made in the other direction.”

“It is the Iranian government that is in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions with respect to these programs, so focus needs to be on the country that is feuding the will of the international community and the United Nations,” Gates added.

“Despite the ever-increasing pressure on the Islamic regime, diplomacy continues to be the preferred course,” Gates emphasized in response to a question of whether the US could ensure that Iran would not use Iraq to retaliate against any future military strike.

“I’m not going to address hypothetical situations,” he said. “Our view is that there is still an opportunity for diplomacy and political and economic pressures to bring about a change of policy in Iran, so getting into hypotheticals about military reaction, I think doesn’t take us very far.”

Over the next few weeks, the topic of the Iranian nuclear program is expected to be raised during a series of high-level meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly gathering, as well as the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has arrived in Washington for talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama, to discuss the stalled Arab-Israeli peace deal.

In what is his first visit to the United States in five years, Mubarak is expected to focus on Middle East peace, the Iranian nuclear program, Sudan, combating “extremists and promoting reform across the Arab world,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told Al-Ahram daily on Saturday.

“The visit now comes at a critical time… because the American side is coming closer to announcing its vision on how to achieve peace and end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Abul-Gheit said.

The country’s top diplomat was referring to a recent report in the New York Times which said Obama is expected to launch a public relations campaign in the Middle East to explain his vision for a peace deal.

Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since 1981, is also to meet other senior officials, including the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Advisor James Jones and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair.

Egypt, one of the two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, is currently a key player in the Obama administration’s diplomatic drive in the Middle East.

It is mediating reconciliation talks between the Western-backed Fatah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the democratically-elected government of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as well as trying to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian road map for peace.

The road map, a plan proposed by the quartet for the Middle East in 2003, calls for the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is faced with global criticism over its refusal to freeze Israeli settlements expansion in the West Bank, has used every possible means to stall the two-state solution.

The Netanyahu government has even snubbed calls by its number one sponsor – the United States – to halt its settlement constructions, creating a rare gap between Washington and Tel Aviv.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal says his country and the United States are “working closely” on Iranian nuclear program.

“Today, our two nations are working closely … to emphasize the need for Iran to adhere to its obligation under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” al-Faisal said in a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Washington.

The comments came as Iran insists that its nuclear activities are in line with its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and are aimed at the civilian applications of the technology.

The US and its European allies, however, accuse the Tehran government of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Clinton, for her part, noted that the two sides “shared concerns about the destabilizing role that Iran has played throughout the region and the continued expansion of its nuclear program.”

The remarks come as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), following extensive investigations, has announced that it has found no evidence proving diversion of Iran’s nuclear activities towards a weapons program.

The two officials remained silent over Israel’s possession of what is widely believed to be over 200 nuclear warheads, while Iran has called for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

Israel refuses to sign the NPT and ignores regional and international calls for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.