Drudge, Jerusalem Post sensationalize story about nuclear Iran
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Drudge_Jerusalem_Post_sensationalize_story_about_1205.html
An article in the Jerusalem Post trumpeted by the conservative Drudge
Report grossly sensationalizes the comments of Mohamed El-Baradei,
head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The piece, titled "El Baradei: Iran only months away from a bomb,"
takes a comment Baradei made to the British newspaper The Independent
completely out of context.
According to the Independent, Baradei said he wasn't sure if the
Iranians were building a nuclear weapon:
_______________________________________
UN chief urges West and Iran to cool brinkmanship over nuclear
programme
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article331219.ece
By Anne Penketh in Vienna
Published: 05 December 2005
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, has appealed
to both Iran and the West to refrain from escalating their dangerous
game of brinkmanship, which has entered an unpredictable phase after
the election of a hardline Iranian president.
Talks between Iran and the European Union, which has been leading
negotiations aimed at preventing the Iranians from building a nuclear
bomb, broke down in August, when the Iranians resumed nuclear-related
activities at their Isfahan plant.
The main hope of resuming the dialogue now resides in compromise
proposals from Russia, which is offering to enrich uranium for Iran
outside its territory. Uranium enrichment is the critical stage in
nuclear power which can produce weapons grade fuel.
In an interview in his 28th floor office at IAEA headquarters
overlooking the Danube in Vienna, Mr ElBaradei noted that Iran has not
rejected the Russian proposal outright, and he said he expected "talks
about talks" to be held before next month.
But he warned that if Iran carries out a threat to reopen its
mothballed Natanz underground enrichment plant, a dangerous escalation
will ensue, and raise fresh questions about Iran's insistence that its
nuclear intentions are peaceful. "If they start enriching this is a
major issue and a serious concern for the international community," he
said.
Although IAEA officials have said it would take at least two years for
Natanz to become fully operational, Mr ElBaradei believes that once
the facility is up and running, the Iranians could be "a few months"
away from a nuclear weapon. "That's why there is the concern of the
international community about Iran," he said, "because lots of people
feel it could be a dual purpose programme".
Did he believe the Iranians were building a nuclear weapon? "The
jury's out," he said. "It's difficult to read their intention. We're
still going through the programme to make sure it's all for peaceful
purposes.
"I know they are trying to acquire the full fuel cycle. I know that
acquiring the full fuel cycle means that a country is months away from
nuclear weapons, and that applies to Iran and everybody else."
Mr ElBaradei said he could see no victors from an escalation.
"Everybody would hurt," he said, referring to all parties in the
dispute. "You would then open a Pandora's box. There would be efforts
to isolate Iran; Iran would retaliate; and at the end of the day you
have to go back to the negotiating table to find the solution."
Israel has warned that it will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, and
has hinted that it would take preemptive action as it did in Iraq when
it bombed the Osiraq reactor in 1980. The Prime Minister, Ariel
Sharon, repeated yesterday that "it's clear we can't have a situation
where Iran will become a nuclear power". Iran's President, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, has publicly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
President George Bush insists that all options remain on the table,
but the reality is that the US already has its hands full in Iraq.
So for now, the Bush administration is prepared to let Britain, France
and Germany continue to take the lead and seek a negotiated solution.
The EU troika remains adamant that Iran should be barred from
controlling its own nuclear fuel cycle - even under international
supervision - and the threat of referral to the UN Security Council
remains an option for the IAEA board of governors.
But it is generally believed that Iran holds all the cards at this
point. If referred to the Security Council, the Iranians could use
their oil-charged political influence to prevent any punitive action.
And there remains the fear that the mullahs would pull out of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, following the lead of North Korea
which is believed to have enough weapons grade plutonium for at least
six bombs.
While IAEA officials recognise that progress has been made in the EU
negotiations, the talks so far have only bought time.
Despite the developments in Iran and North Korea, Mr ElBaradei said
the most worrying nuclear threat came from the prospect of nuclear
terrorism. "The deterrence concept does not apply in the case of
terrorists. That is the most critical danger we are facing now because
there is a lot of nuclear material and nuclear facilities that need to
be adequately protected."
He was talking about the possibility of a "dirty bomb" which could
spread radiation and create widespread panic, or the theft of a
nuclear weapon. Although he said that such a scenario was "highly
unlikely", the countries where the risk was greatest, he said without
the slightest hint of irony, were those such as Iraq and Afghanistan
where governments are not in control of their territory.
Mr ElBaradei, an Egyptian lawyer, has not always got on with the Bush
administration which tried to block him from serving a second term as
IAEA chief. He was after all the man who publicly demolished one of
the central planks of the US argument for war on Iraq by revealing in
the Security Council that documents purporting to show that the Iraqis
had attempted to procure uranium from Niger were fakes. IAEA
inspectors trying to unravel the biggest ever network of black market
nuclear trafficking are still being refused access to the scientist at
the centre of the scandal, A Q Khan, from Pakistan, an important US
ally in the "war on terror".
Mr ElBaradei's credibility and authority have been reinforced by the
award in October of the Nobel Peace Prize, an accolade which has added
to his workload. Tomorrow, he will be in London to address the
International Institute for Strategic Studies on his ideas for
controlling the headlong rush for nuclear power, in particular the
uranium enrichment process.
"If you have that capacity you are also buying yourself a smart
insurance policy. You are sending a very powerful message to your
neighbour - you don't even need to have the weapon," he said. He is
calling for the IAEA to control a multilateral "fuel bank" a move
intended to remove the justification for countries to develop
indigenous fuel cycle capabilities - the issue at the heart of the
dispute with Iran.
Mr ElBaradei and the IAEA will receive their Nobel award on Saturday
at a ceremony in Oslo.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article331219.ece
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