ElBaradei: No Evidence That Iran is Building Nuclear Weapons

(DemocracyNow) UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday the International Atomic Energy Agency has no evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons. During an interview on CNN, ElBaradei urged the Bush administration to back away from its bellicose statements about Iran.

Mohamed ElBaradei: "I very much have concern about confrontation, building confrontation, Wolf, because that would lead absolutely to a disaster. I see no military solution. The only durable solution is through negotiations and inspections… My fear if that we continue to escalate from both sides from both sides that we would end up into a precipice, we would end up into an abyss. As I said, the Middle East is in a total mess, to say the least. And we cannot add fuel to the fire."

Earlier this month President Bush warned that World War III could begin if Iran obtains the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. But on Sunday Mohamed ElBaradei said the UN has no evidence that Iran is running a nuclear weapons program.

Mohamed ElBaradei: "But have we seen having the nuclear material that can be readily used into a weapon? No. Have we seen an active weaponization program? No. So there is a concern, but there is also time to clarify these concerns."

IAEA boss warns against Iran attack

According to the Press Association, the chief UN nuclear inspector criticised talk of attacking Iran as "hype", saying the use of force should only be considered as a last resort and only if authorised by the UN Security Council.

"I would not talk about any use of force," said Mohamed El-Baradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an indirect response to French warnings that the world had to be prepared for the possibility of war in the event that Iran obtains atomic weapons.

Saying only the UN Security Council could authorise the use of force, El-Baradei urged the world to remember Iraq before considering any similar action against Iran.

"There are rules on how to use force, and I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 70,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons," he told reporters.

He was alluding to a key US argument for invading Iraq in 2003 without Security Council approval - that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms.

Four years later, no such arsenals have been found.

El-Baradei, speaking outside a 144-nation meeting of his agency, urged both sides to back away from confrontation, in comments addressed both to Iran and the US-led group of nations pressing for new UN sanctions for Iran's refusal to end uranium enrichment.

"We need to be cool," he said, adding: "We need not to hype the issue."

Later, US Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should not be allowed to address the UN General Assembly next week, but instead should be greeted "with an indictment under the Genocide Convention".

Romney routinely talks about the threat the US faced from "radical jihadists," and he has staked out a hardline position against Iran in particular.

UN nuclear chief walks out on EU speech on Iran: diplomats

by Michael Adler (source: AFP)
Tuesday, September 11, 2007

VIENNA (AFP) - UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei walked out on an afternoon session Tuesday of his IAEA to protest an EU speech which did not fully support his deal for new inspections in Iran, diplomats told AFP.

"He walked out because the EU did not support the Secretariat," a diplomat who was at the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors said.

"The Europeans gave a nasty statement and the director general (ElBaradei) walked out of the room," a second diplomat said, demanding anonymity in return for revealing information about the closed-door session.

But a senior European diplomat said the EU supported ElBaradei and had only reiterated the IAEA chief's view that the timetable needs "Iran's full and active cooperation."

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming declined comment but several diplomats confirmed that ElBaradei had walked out in protest.

ElBaradei has been under pressure as the United States and other Western countries warn that a timetable for new inspections in Iran agreed by the IAEA and Tehran last month gives the Islamic republic room to delay new UN sanctions.

They also warn that it gives Iran time to continue improving its work on enriching uranium, which makes power reactor fuel but also atom bomb material.

Still, the United States and ElBaradei had closed ranks on the first day here Monday of a regular meeting of the IAEA board in urging Iran to meet the timetable and also to do more to show the world it does not seek the bomb, such as suspending uranium enrichment.

At issue is how to win guarantees that Iran's nuclear work is peaceful, with US patience wearing thin as it presses for more UN sanctions but ElBaradei urging more inspections that could lead to talks on ending the crisis.

The European Union speech was given by Portuguese ambassador Joaquim Duarte, as Portugal is the current EU president.

Duarte hammered Iran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment "contrary to the decisions of the (UN) Security Council," referring to three UN Security Council resolutions and two rounds of UN sanctions.

He said that since ElBaradei's last report in May "Iran has further increased its enrichment capacities."

The speech only mentioned briefly the timetable the IAEA worked hard to get and did not give it the diplomatic backing ElBaradei expected.

The timetable, in a report ElBaradei submitted to the board on Monday, is to resolve outstanding questions in the agency's over four-year-old investigation of Iran on US charges that Tehran is using a civilian energy program to hide the development of nuclear weapons.

The speech focused on Iran's lack of cooperation, including its refusal to provide early design information on new nuclear facilities, and called repeatedly on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.

After walking out, ElBaradei stayed away until the session was adjourned at its regular time until Wednesday. The Portuguese speech was followed by speeches from Canada and Norway.

Just before the Portuguese speech, ElBaradei had receiving a rousing statement of support from the non-aligned movement, in a speech by Cuban ambassador Norma Miguelina Goicochea Estenoz as NAM leader.

She said "NAM shares the view that this work plan (timetable) is a 'significant step forward'" and "reiterates its full confidence in the impartiality and professionalism of the Secretariat of the IAEA and its Director General, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei."

A diplomat said ElBaradei had expected the same personal tone of appreciation in the EU speech and took the lack of it as a rebuff to his sustained diplomatic efforts.

Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari, meanwhile, told reporters at an OPEC meeting in Vienna that Iran's cooperation with the IAEA would have a "positive impact on energy markets."

Nozari said the "proactive cooperation" of Iran "is an essential step towards a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue."

IAEA warns of Neocon agression plans

Did the IAEA really say that the Neocons are planning to attack Iran? Almost. The word "Neocon" was not used but was replaced by a well-known euphemism. Actually, here is what happened:

IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei recently said to the BBC "I have no brief other than to make sure we don't go into another war or that we go crazy into killing each other. You do not want to give additional argument to new crazies who say 'let's go and bomb Iran". As I have pointed out elsewhere on my blog, the expression "crazies" is a codeword for Neocons (itself a politically correct euphemism for Zionists).

Will the voice of the Nobel Prize winning ElBaradei stop the crazies/Neocons/Zionists in control of the Imperial White House from starting yet another agression? I doubt it very much as their power does not depend on public opinion, but on the Imperial Congress and the Imperial propaganda machine of the US corporate media.

And with another Neocon now President of France no Chirac-like opposition can be hoped for at the UNSC (all other members are for sale).

I still say it will happen, and rather soon.