IAEA Denies Report It Is Sure Iran Seeking Atom Bomb

[Purveyor]

Source: Reuters

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear agency has no proof that Iran has or once had a covert atomic bomb program, it said on Thursday, dismissing a report that it had concluded Iran was on its way to producing nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reaffirmed IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's September 9 comment that allegations the agency was sitting on evidence of Iranian bomb work were "politically motivated and baseless."

"With respect to a recent media report, the IAEA reiterates that it has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapons program in Iran," an IAEA statement said.

The IAEA received information from a variety of sources that might be relevant to verifying that a state was not hiding nuclear bomb research or development, it said.

All information on Iran that the IAEA had vetted has already been shared with its 35-nation Board of Governors in reports by ElBaradei.

Diplomats close to the IAEA have told Reuters it has no "smoking gun" evidence of Iran currently trying to apply nuclear technology to its ballistic missile program. Two diplomats repeated that position after Thursday's media report.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE58G60W20090917

[tekisui]

1. I don't care if they are. The smoking gun language is

unsettling. When they find a smoking gun, then what? Another invasion. I hope not.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Yes we use a smoking gun to remove a bad apple.

A frame is a frame. Lets tick with reality.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Let them have their A-Bomb.

The US, Russia, England, France, China, Pakistan, India, North Korea, and Isral have a bomb. Only 1 out of 9 countries have ever used it in war. That means that from an historical perspective there is a 90% chance that Iran won't use it either.

And just in cases they are actually only creating a civilian nuclear program, that is 100% legal under the Nuclear Weapons Non-proliferation treaty that they signed.

[Hissyspit]

4. That AP headline was a big stinking pile.

The opposite, essentially, of what everyone else was reporting.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Has the AP even printed anything regarding this change of events yet?

I looked and came up with nothing, but I could have just overlooked it.

It sure makes them look like they're up to something when they're dragging their feet on reporting an official source whose referring to actual vetted information, and yet they went off like a rocket over claims Mohamed ElBaradei was hiding information concerning Iran's nuclear weapons abilities.

[AntiFascist]

6. Remember the smoking threat of "mushroom clouds on the horizon"...

that got us to invade Iraq.