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International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei. (Reuters)
Last update - 00:00 26/09/2008
IAEA chief: Iran mastering nuclear bomb-making technology
By Reuters
Tags: IAEA, Iran, Mohamed ElBaradei

Iran is on its way to mastering technology that would enable it to build atomic bombs, if it so chose, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohammed ElBaradei said in remarks published on Friday.

Meanwhile British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters that the six world powers had agreed on a draft resolution on Iran's nuclear program and would submit the draft text to the 15-nation United Nations Security Council for discussions on Friday afternoon.

Iran says its uranium-enrichment program is for civilian purposes only, including electricity generation, but is currently under IAEA investigation and has been hit with UN sanctions over past undeclared activity and failure to prove its intentions are wholly peaceful.
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ElBaradei said having nuclear arms unfortunately still symbolized prestige and power, tempting nations with security worries to at least develop the potential for a bomb through the "dual use" enrichment process.

Beyond seven confirmed nuclear weapons countries, there is a wide range of countries with access to components - fissile material or the equipment to produce it - that could give them an atomic bomb "in a matter of months or a year", ElBaradei said.

Asked by Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily if Iran was also on its way to "virtual" nuclear-weapons power status, he said: "That is correct." But he added Tehran could not "break out" to a bomb as long IAEA monitors remained at its nuclear sites.

Iran has pledged to maintain regular IAEA inspections which are limited to only a few declared facilities.

"They have the cookbook ... [But] right now they don't yet have the ingredients - enough nuclear material to make a bomb overnight," ElBaradei said.

He did not say how long Iran might need to reach that threshold, if indeed that was its goal. Some Western analysts say this could come within two years.

"The hope is that as long as such countries remain in the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) with IAEA inspectors keeping watch, the likelihood is slim [they] would risk international isolation if they quit the treaty," ElBaradei said.

There has been talk in the United States and Israel, Iran's arch-enemies, of last resort military action against Iranian nuclear sites although each remains formally committed to a diplomatic solution.

ElBaradei said the military option would be disastrous. The Iranian issue could not be resolved unless Washington dropped its refusal to negotiate with Tehran directly and without preconditions.

"The Iranian issue at its heart is really a question of security...The nuclear [part] is a symptom of an underlying sense of insecurity or a desire to be recognized as a major, regional power," ElBaradei told Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"Europe is not really in the front seat [here]. It is the U.S. who is in the front seat. The earlier that you have a direct negotiation between the U.S. and Iran, the earlier the prospect that we will have a solution," he said.

A settlement would have to address security issues across the region including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and "the elephant in the room" - Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, said ElBaradei.

"A military solution ... will give [Iran's] regime the full [domestic] support, the full justification to go for a crash course to develop nuclear weapons. The know-how is there, you cannot take it out of their minds.

"They will simply, in my view, go underground. The region is already in an unsustainable situation and adding an attack will simply create a ball of fire which will ricochet everywhere, in every part of the world," he said.

Meanwhile Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives moved toward reinforcing sanctions against Iran. The House legislation, approved on a voice vote, would authorize state and local governments to divest assets of their pension funds and investments in companies that have invested more than $20 million in Iran's oil industry.

The measure takes aspects of several previous sanctions that were passed overwhelmingly in the House last year but which did not advance in the Senate and met opposition from the Bush administration. The likelihood that the Senate might take up the issue in the last few hours of the current session was uncertain.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, a Democrat, said more meaningful sanctions were needed if Iran would not change its behavior as a result of incentives offered by the West. Past sanctions, he said, have squeezed Iran's economy somewhat but clearly not enough to slow down its nuclear program.

The top Republican on the committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said she supported the bill, but it did not go far enough. "This weak legislation will send a message to our enemies of a weakened U.S. position on the issue of Iran," she said.

Another problem, she said, was that the bill gave the president authority to waive sanctions for national security reasons.

Six world powers agree on draft resolution

Six world powers have agreed on a draft resolution on Iran's nuclear program but it included no new sanctions, in line with Russia's preference, senior U.S. and European officials said on Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the aim of the new resolution was not to impose any new sanctions against Tehran but to show unity after disagreements with Russia over its invasion of Georgia.

"I think it's also especially important that the Iranians recognize that the P5 plus 1 process is intact," Rice told Reuters in an interview.

She was referring to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and Germany, the powers seeking to persuade Iran to halt its suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

The United States and Europeans had wanted a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, which refuses to halt nuclear enrichment work. China and especially Russia oppose further sanctions.

Miliband said the text "reaffirms existing resolutions that are on the UN books."

Although the draft resolution has no new penalties, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters that the text "does not rule them out either."

Miliband said the resolution also reaffirmed a determination to press ahead with "further discussions and further steps" on Iran's nuclear program.

The meeting on Iran was originally scheduled for Thursday but it was postponed after Russia withdrew to protest U.S. criticism of its invasion of Georgia. Russian diplomats said Moscow was letting the West know it could not be sidelined on issues like Iran where it is a key player.

Separately, Rice told the Security Council that she wants it to take up Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threats against Israel. Rice said his comments that the Jewish state "should be wiped from the face of the map, should be destroyed and should not exist" were unacceptable.

Tehran insists its nuclear program aims to produce electricity and refuses to halt its enrichment program. In a defiant speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad vowed to resist U.S. "bullying".

Miliband said the U.N. nuclear watchdog had failed to get sufficient cooperation from Tehran in its investigation of allegations that Iran conducted research on an atomic weapon.

In June the six powers gave Iran a beefed-up offer of political and economic incentives, including nuclear reactors, in exchange for a suspension of its enrichment program. Tehran says enrichment is a sovereign right it will never renounce.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said this week that Moscow saw no need for a further round of sanctions now since it wants Iran to have time to study the offer.

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      1.   Civilian use! 20:39  |  Paul 26/09/08
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