Report accuses IAEA of hiding details

JERUSALEM, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Israeli officials and Western diplomats say the International Atomic Energy Agency censored evidence of Iran's race to build military nuclear weapons.

A report in Haaretz Wednesday said Israeli officials and Western diplomats accused the IAEA and its current director, Mohammed ElBaradei, of refusing to publish evidence recently compiled by inspectors that purports to show the Islamic Republic pursued information concerning weapons and a military nuclear program.

The Israeli newspaper said the classified report, which was signed by the head of the IAEA team in Iran, was not incorporated in the agency's published reports.

Officials from the United States, France, Britain and Germany reportedly asked ElBaradei to publish the information in the agency's next report to be published in September at the organization's general conference, Haaretz said.

Dr. Shaul Horev, director general of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission, is pushing to release the details, Haaretz said. The newspaper said several Israeli diplomats and the prime minister's office refused to respond to the allegations against the IAEA, but did not deny them.

Israel hopes to prove Iran's continued efforts to develop nuclear weapons despite a denial from Tehran, which has said it stopped its nuclear program in 2003, Haaretz said. If the suspicions are confirmed, the international community will be obliged to impose "paralyzing sanctions" on Iran, the newspaper said.