When he arrived in Tehran last weekend, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was taken to President Mohammed Khatami's office and the two exchanged kisses like old friends.
The Iranians, being much smarter than the Iraqis, thus proved they have learned something from Baghdad's mistakes.
Khatami certainly felt ElBaradei deserved the kisses.
So, the ElBaradei trip, which so many had anticipated, can be described as an impressive Iranian success. Iran managed to take another step toward "whitewashing" its intensive nuclear activity, which all Western intelligence agencies agree is on a trajectory toward developing nuclear weapons.
The fact that two ElBaradei aides are staying an extra two days in Iran should not mislead anyone. And the truth is that there wasn't an inspection by the IAEA in Tehran. It was a visit. It will be interesting to learn how the Iranians explained why they did not report a deal with China for the pucahse of gas used to enrich uranimum.
Iran managed to time the date of the visit to coincide with the diplomatic crisis with Iraq. There were two main purposes for the visit. The first was to establish the essence of the two nuclear sites built by the Iranians and which went unreported for years to the IAEA. One is at Natanz, where uranium enrichment has begun, and the other at Arak, making heavy water. The Iranian opposition, and in effect, Washington, first told the world about those plants last summer. The second goal was to finally persuade Iran to join the additional protocol, which would permit regular monitoring of Iran's nuclear operations and not only those the Iranian government opens to inspectors.
Iran is taking an opposite tactic to Iraq. Instead of hiding everything, it announces it is indeed enriching uranium, but only for peaceful purposes. ElBaradei was helicoptered to Natanz and saw the first collection of Iranian centrifuges. With 1,000 small centrifuges, they can manufacture a bomb every year. ElBaradei said everything looked fine, but the Iranians didn't explain why a country rich in petroleum and natural gas, needs to invest huge amounts of money in enriched uranium, heavy water, nuclear power plants, and uranium mining.
ElBaradei said Iran promised him it would sign the additional protocol, but the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in Iran, Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh, "corrected" ElBaradei and said Tehran had agreed to conduct further discussions on the issue. That statement cannot be interpreted as a success for ElBaradei.
Hen Zak, from the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, recently published a paper in Washington saying that if Iran continues to refuse to sign and ratify the additional protocol before it produces enough fissionable material for weapons, it will prove that its plan is to manufacture a nuclear weapon. ElBaradei's visit to Iran shows once again that the Iranian effort to that end not only continues, but is actually intensifying
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