Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling on the United States and its allies to apologize after the International Atomic Energy Agency praised Iran for being more transparent about its nuclear program. Ahmadinejad described the UN watchdog report as a “victory over the West” which has accused Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said his agency had made “good progress” in clarifying Iran’s nuclear program thanks to increased Iranian cooperation.

Mohamed ElBaradei: “In the last four months, in particular, we have made quite a good progress in clarifying the outstanding issues that has to do with Iran’s past nuclear activities, with the exception of one issue, and that is the alleged weaponization studies that supposedly Iran has conducted in the past. We have managed to clarify all the remaining outstanding issues, including the most important issue, which is the scope and nature of Iran’s enrichment program.”

ElBaradei also called on Iran to adopt, implement the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, which would allow snap, intrusive inspections that could verify Tehran is not engaged in secret bomb work beyond declared civilian atomic energy sites.