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| By Associated Press December 10, 2005 |
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Nobel peace laureate and U.N. nuclear watchdog agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei appeared to warn Israel not to bomb Iranian atomic facilities in a newspaper interview published Saturday.
"You cannot use force to prevent a country from obtaining nuclear weapons. By bombing them half to death, you can only delay the plans," ElBaradei was quoted as saying by the respected Oslo newspaper Aftenposten. "But they will come back, and they will demand revenge."
ElBaradei was in the Norwegian capital to accept the Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to him and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The report said ElBaradei did not mention Israel but it was clear he was referring to the Jewish state's increasingly open discussion over whether to protect itself by bombing Iranian facilities it suspects are being used in a possible secret nuclear weapons program.
The report was in line with what ElBaradei said at a news conference in Oslo on Friday _ that military force was not a solution to world concerns about the Iranian nuclear weapons program and could be counterproductive.
In Israel, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he was not interested in discussing the issue.
"We have made it clear that the policy of the state of Israel is to put the Iran issue to the Security Council and that the diplomatic channel is the proper one to deal with this matter at this time," he said on Israeli Radio.
ElBaradei and the IAEA have been seeking a negotiated settlement with Iran, in which inspections could prove whether it was still attempting to develop nuclear weapons. On Friday, he said it was too early to bring the matter to the U.N. Security Council, but that the next few months would be crucial.
Israel has been expanding its military arsenal to deal with what it considers the key threat to its existence: a nuclear attack by Iran. Although Israel says there are no short-term plans for an attack, senior officials have begun openly discussing the option.
Tensions between Iran and Israel stem from the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Israel sided with the United States in supporting the Shah of Iran before he was deposed.
Defiant Iran to produce nuclear fuel, its nuclear chief says
Iran's top nuclear official said Saturday that his country will enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel in Iran despite the U.S.-led international drive to curb such efforts.
"For me, there is no doubt that the process of producing nuclear fuel in Iran will be accomplished," Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Atomic Organization of Iran, said during a press conference. "There is no doubt that we have to carry out uranium enrichment."
Aghazadeh, who is also an Iranian vice president, gave no date for when the processes would start, but stressed they would do so at some stage.
Iran has rejected a European offer to shift its enrichment program to Russia to try break the deadlock over its nuclear program. The plan envisaged Moscow ensuring nuclear material would be enriched only to fuel levels and not weapons-grade levels for atomic warheads.
The United States claims Iran's nuclear program is geared toward producing atomic weapons and is pushing for Tehran to be hauled before the U.N. Security Council. Iran denies the American claims, saying its nuclear program is aimed at producing electricity.
"Iran can't trust promises by Europeans that it will deliver nuclear fuel," Aghazadeh told reporters in Tehran. "There is no guarantee that the west will supply us with nuclear fuel."
Aghazadeh claimed Iran owns 90 tons of nuclear material that is currently being held in European countries which are refusing to release it.
In an apparent goodwill gesture, Aghazadeh said "Iran would not inject uranium gas into centrifuges and won't carry out enrichment" during upcoming Iranian talks with European negotiators.
No date has been set for the talks between Iran and the EU3 -- France, Germany and Britain -- which broke off in August. They had been set to resume in early December but did not. The parties maintain they are committed to resuming negotiations.
Aghazadeh's comments fall in line with Iran's stated policy to maintain full control of its nuclear program. They also come amid heightened tensions between Iran and the international community after recent anti-Israel remarks made by Iran's hard-line president.
Iran froze its uranium enrichment program in November 2004 as a goodwill gesture to European negotiators trying to permanently halt the works, which can produce fuel for either nuclear reactors or weapons.
But Iran restarted uranium conversion _ a step toward enrichment _ in August after talks broke down.
Aghazadeh also said Iran plans to construct a 360 megawatt nuclear power plant based on domestic technology in Dar Khovin, in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran.
Iran also wants to produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity by building nuclear power plants with foreign help, he added.
On Friday, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said the world was losing patience with Iran in the drawn-out negotiations over its nuclear program.
"They are inching forward and I'm asking them to leap forward," ElBaradei told reporters in Oslo. He said he hopes outstanding nuclear issues will be clarified by the time he presents his next report on Iran in March, because "the international community is losing patience with the nature of that program."
In response to ElBaradei's comments, Aghazadeh said: "Iran is also losing its patience with them."
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