 |
 |
 |
|
|
A nuclear plant Isfahan, Iran
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By israelinsider staff May 24, 2007 |
|
| |
 Bookmark to del.icio.us |
| |
The international community is "heading towards confrontation" with Iran over it's nuclear program, stated Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Thursday. The warning came after the Wednesday report by IAEA that Iran is expanding its program, and that the agency's knowledge of its activities are decreasing.
Israel responded to the IAEA report by saying that thought the Iran's persistence in its nuclear program was a "source of concern," there was yet no evidence in the report saying Iran's activities had reached "industrial" levels.
Israel also voiced concern over Iran's continual lack of cooperation with the IAEA and refusal to adhere to UN Security Council and IAEA resolutions.
According to ElBaradei, both Iran and the international community need to work towards cooperation. If not, the current situation could lead to serious confrontation.
"We could end up with a major confrontation," he stated. "Iran needs to listen to the international community and suspend enrichment, but the international community also needs to engage Iran. We need a comprehensive settlement... the status quo is unacceptable."
ElBaradei was speaking at a Luxembourg conference organized by Russian Jewish Congress Chairman Viatcheslav Kantor with the purpose of "preventing nuclear catastrophe."
"Its very difficult to say how close a country is to nuclear weapons," ElBaradei said during a press conference. "Iran is expanding its knowledge and capacity. It now has over 1000 centrifuges. I have expressed concern over this because the Agency is unable to conduct a robust and full inspection," he added.
"My current priority is to carry out a comprehensive inspection," ElBaradei said, adding that he estimated Iran was "three to eight years" from being capable of producing nuclear weapons.
ElBaradei has been under criticism for speaking of Iran's progress in its nuclear program as definite.
In Israel's response to the IAEA report, it criticized those in the international community who suggest that there's nothing that can stop Iran's nuclear advancement, which they call too far progressed. According to Israel, initiatives that attempt to "make permanent" the present situation hurt the possibility of successful diplomacy.
Wednesday's report showed the little progress the IAEA has made into suspicions that Iran was secretly developing it's program that could be used to create nuclear weapons for almost 20 years.
Some of the unresolved issues faving the IAEA are, " Iran's possession of diagrams showing how to form uranium into warhead form; unexplained uranium contamination at a research facility linked to the military; information on high explosives experiments that could be used in a nuclear program; and the design of a missile reentry vehicle," reported the Jerusalem Post.
The report also noted IAEA inspectors' not being allowed to visit some of Iran's facilities.
"The agency... remains unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify certain aspects [concerning the nuclear program]. Unless Iran addresses the long outstanding verification issues... the agency will not be able to fully reconstruct the history of Iran's nuclear program and provide assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear ... activities in Iran or about the exclusively peaceful nature of that program," the report stated.
Iran's chief IAEA representative, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, blamed Western countries, especially those who pushed for Security council action, for the IAEA's limited inspection access to the countries nuclear facilities.
"The best advice to the few Western countries that have already deteriorated the situation is to stop their actions at the Security Council," Soltanieh said.
Soltanieh pledged that Iran would "fully cooperate to remove the few [nuclear] ambiguities in question," if these countries were to comply with his suggestion.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
The only nuclear facility that the IAEA has access to fully monitor is the underground Natanz enrichment facility. According to the report, the facility has fixed many of the problems it formerly faced, and according to one top UN official, Iran is now able of enrichment at a "notable" pace.
Report: US and its allies are sabotaging Iran's nuclear program
According to a CBS News report, Wednesday, the intelligence agencies of the US and its allies have sold Iran faulty equipment for its nuclear program.
Vice-President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, charged in January of this year that an explosion at the Natanz facility, which destroyed 50 centrifuges, was due to "manipulated" equipment.
"Industrial sabotage is a way to stop the program, without military action, without fingerprints on the operation, and really, it is ideal, if it works," stated Mark Fitzpatrick, the Senior Fellow in Non-Proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
According to the report, Iran is susceptible for industrial sabotage because it buys information and equipment illegally on the black market.
"Any technical problems that Iran experiences in its program, some of which were the result of its own speed-up effort, Iran may attribute to foreign espionage," stated Fitzpatrick, saying that though Iran is suspicious, it is impossible to know if, and to what degree, it has uncovered industrial sabotage. |
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
