U.N. to inspect Iran nuclear plant this month

United Nations inspectors will visit Iran's recently disclosed nuclear power plant on October 25, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency announced Sunday from Tehran, Iran

"It is important for us to send out inspectors to do comprehensive verification ... to assure ourselves that it is ... fit for peaceful purposes," Mohamed ElBaradei said.

Iran sent shock waves through the international community recently when Tehran wrote a letter to the IAEA revealing the existence of a nuclear enrichment facility near the city of Qom.

Iran said its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, but the United States, among others, fears the country aims to build nuclear weapons. The New York Times reported Sunday that IAEA experts "have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired 'sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable' atom bomb."

Citing senior European officials, the report said that the conclusions are tentative, but "go well beyond the public positions taken by several governments, including the United States."

CNN could not immediately confirm the Times' report.

Speaking to CNN, U.S. national security adviser Jim Jones rejected the idea that Iran may be closer to a bomb than the U.S. government has said.

"No, we stand by the reports that we've put out," Jones, a retired Marine Corps general, said on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that there will be "a lot of speculation, one way or the other."

Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said, "I'm not going to get into characterizing the substance of a confidential report or our own intelligence. But suffice it to say, our whole approach is predicated on an urgent need to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capacity."

Speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press," she added, "There are various assessments and they don't all align."

But, Rice said, key players are on the same page about what to do.

"This is a very serious process where we are together aligned with the P5+1 -- that's Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the United States -- presenting Iran with a very stark choice: Either they give up their nuclear weapons program conclusively to our satisfaction, or they will face additional pressure," Rice said, adding: "We're very much in a period of intense negotiations now."

And while "Russia and China have resisted sanctions," Rice said, "we are united in presenting this choice to Iran."

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Source: CNN