IAEA chief: Iran investigation at 'dead end'
via http://www.drudgereport.com/
via http://www.drudgereport.com/
Diplomacy FTL...now what?Breitbart wrote:
Nov 26 01:05 PM US/Eastern
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA (AP) - The International Atomic Energy Agency probe of Iran's nuclear program is at a dead end because Tehran is not cooperating, the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Thursday in an unusually blunt expression of frustration four days before he leaves office.
Mohamed ElBaradei also warned that international confidence in Iran's assertions of purely peaceful intent shrank after its belated revelation of a previously secret nuclear facility. And he criticized Tehran for not accepting an internationally endorsed plan meant to delay its achieving the ability to make nuclear weapons.
"There has been no movement on remaining issues of concern which need to be clarified for the agency to verify the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," ElBaradei told the opening session of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors. "We have effectively reached a dead end, unless Iran engages fully with us."
"Issues of concern" is the IAEA term for indications that Tehran has experimented with nuclear weapons programs, including missile-delivery systems and tests of explosives that could serve as nuclear-bomb detonators.
ElBaradei has emphasized the need for talks instead of threats in engaging Iran. He has criticized the U.S. for invading Iraq on the pretext that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear weapons program, which has never been proven. That—and perceived softness on the Iran issue—has drawn criticism from the U.S. and its allies that he was overstepping his mandate.
But ElBaradei's comments Thursday left little doubt that he was most unhappy with Tehran.
"I am disappointed that Iran has not so far agreed to the original proposal" involving removal of most of Iran's enriched stockpile, ElBaradei told the meeting.
The plan approved by the six world powers negotiating with Iran over the past few months would commit Tehran to ship out 70 percent of its enriched uranium for processing into fuel rods for its research reactor in Tehran. That would help allay international fears by removing most of the material that Iran could use to make a nuclear weapon.
It would take more than a year for Tehran to replace the enriched material, meaning it would not be able to make a weapon for at least that long.
