UN watchdog refuses to give Iran clean bill of health in nuclear row

[EuroObserver]

I'm amazed this doesn't appear to be in LBN yet (correct me if I'm wrong). Then again, this is no more than ElBaradei said in an interview with Spain's El País newspaper a month or more ago... The problem is, there is still at least one site in Iran that the IAEA wants to inspect, but they are still being refused access...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1719711,00.html
· Aspirations 'not entirely peaceful,' says report
· US and EU expected to push for tougher action

Ian Traynor
Tuesday February 28, 2006
The Guardian

The head of the world's nuclear watchdog declared last night that he could not give Iran's nuclear programme a clean bill of health, blaming Tehran for frustrating almost three years of inspections and detective work by experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The damning verdict delivered by Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA, set the scene for a diplomatic battle next week in Vienna when the IAEA's 35-strong board is to take the longrunning dispute to the UN security council in New York.

A confidential report by Dr ElBaradei, supplied to Vienna diplomats ahead of next week's meeting and obtained by the Guardian, said that the IAEA was still not in a position to assert that Iran's nuclear programme was "entirely peaceful".

"It is regrettable and a matter of concern that the uncertainties related to the scope and nature of Iran's nuclear programme have not been clarified after three years of intensive agency verification," Dr ElBaradei complained. But he was also unable to state unequivocally that Iran was embarked on a nuclear weapons programme. Rather, the tone of the report was one of suspicion, criticism, and exasperation that Iran was not showing adequate "transparency" in its dealings with the nuclear inspections. Although the IAEA had not discovered "any diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, the Agency is not at this point in time in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran".

[ret5hd]

1. well here is a different headline with a different tone...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2136547&mesg_id=2136547

[EuroObserver]

2. Ok. I see.

Serious trouble brewing (as if we didn't know already).

On edit: At least we know (or we have the strong impression) that we can trust ElBaradei.