IAEA Chief Urges More Diplomacy on Iran

Las Vegas Sun ^ | September 19, 2005 at 13:18:28 PDT | GEORGE JAHN ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -

The chief U.N. atomic inspector on Monday called for talks to replace international confrontation over Iran's nuclear activities, saying negotiations had proven their worth in getting North Korea to renounce its atomic program.

Nonetheless, U.S. and European diplomats resumed efforts to haul Iran into the U.N. Security Council by drafting a resolution for the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35 board member nations to vote on this week.

The confidential document, shared in part late Monday with The Associated Press, requests that IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei "report ... to the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations ... Iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations to comply" with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she expected the Security Council to take up the matter.

"I'm quite certain that at some point in time Iran is going to be referred to the Security Council, particularly if Iran continues to demonstrate that it is not prepared to give the international community assurances that it is not going to try to build a nuclear weapons program under cover of civil nuclear power," Rice told reporters Monday at the United Nations.

Preparing the draft had been on hold over the last few days to give Iran a chance to deflect the Security Council threat by offering sufficient concessions - and after that failed to happen, to try to get Russia and China on board.

European Union diplomats and a U.S. official said both of those countries remained opposed to referral to the Security Council, despite strong lobbying by the Americans and Europeans. But they told AP that the West would likely force the issue to a vote regardless.

"The difficulty remains with Russia and China and some of the Third World countries," said one of the diplomats.

The U.S. official said "the votes are there," but any vote "will go right down the wire." Like the Europeans, he demanded anonymity as a condition of discussing the sensitive state of behind-the-scenes maneuvering on Iran.

The divisions dampened optimism generated by North Korea's decision to dismantle nuclear weapons and its atomic facilities and to allow IAEA inspectors to return in exchange for energy aid, economic cooperation and security assurances.

Saying he hoped to have his inspectors in place "the earlier ... the better," ElBaradei, the chief U.N. nuclear inspector, indirectly suggested Korea could serve as example for Iran.

He criticized both Tehran's intransigence and U.S.-European calls for Security Council involvement as examples of "confrontations and political brinkmanship," adding: "I very much hope that this week all the parties ... create the necessary conditions to go back to the negotiating table."

As with North Korea, "there are security issues, there are nuclear issues" that must be negotiated to reduce tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions, ElBaradei said in unusually blunt comments.

Others cautioned against drawing too close a parallel.

"The North Koreans are scared of the United States" said former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright of the motives driving Pyongyang to agree to abandon nuclear weapons in exchange for security pledges from Washington.

But in the case of Iran, which had been negotiating with European nations, "if a deal is made with the European Union, you still haven't dealt with the United States and Israel, the prime security threats," said Albright, who now heads the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington.

Washington and the EU started to lobby jointly for Security Council referral last month, after Iran effectively walked away from talks with Germany, Britain and France and resumed uranium conversion. The process of conversion is a precursor to enrichment, which can make nuclear fuel or weapons-grade uranium.

Additionally, North Korea needed a deal to secure international economic aid and stave off starvation among its population, whereas Iran is hurting much less from the effects of international sanctions, which mostly affect the transfer of sensitive technologies, he said.

Diplomats accredited to the IAEA, meanwhile, suggested Iran may have another card up its sleeve, saying Tehran may announce it is ready to grant agency experts access to high-ranking military officials or military sites.

The agency has been trying to determine if gaps in Iranian reporting on more than 18 years of clandestine nuclear activity first revealed three years ago are attempts to cover up military involvement in what Iran insists is a purely civilian program to generate power. Establishing such involvement would bolster arguments by the United States and its allies that Iran's program is a cover for trying to make nuclear arms.

The IAEA has been rebuffed in attempts to revisit Parchin, the site of alleged experiments linked to nuclear weapons, and to inspect Lavizan-Shian, the possible site for equipment that can be used both for peaceful and nuclear weapons-related purposes. The agency also has been denied access to senior military officials.

Any such concessions by Iran could increase the number of countries opposed to Security Council referral and leave the Europeans and the Americans in the minority.

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On the Net:

http://www.iaea.org

[FlipWilson]

If mushroom clouds were seen over this moron's house, he would still call for more diplomacy. What a fool. I wonder how much Iran is paying him?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See this:

ElBaradei Welcomes North Korea´s Commitment On Nuclear Programme

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ElBaradei Welcomes North Korea´s Commitment On Nuclear Programme

Staff Report

19 September 2005

Mohamed ElBaradei addressing the media. (Photo Credit: D. Calma/IAEA)

• Story Resources
• DPRK Full Coverage
• Dr. ElBaradei´s Statement to the Board, 19 September 2005
• Transcript of Dr. ElBaradei´s Press Briefing, 19 September 2005
• Joint Six-Party Statement, 19 September 2005
• Board of Governors: Press Arrangements, 19 September 2005

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has welcomed the commitment by the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) to abandon nuclear weapons, and rejoin the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Speaking to members of the international press corps in Vienna this morning, Dr. ElBaradei said he looked forward to IAEA inspectors returning to North Korea.

He said the Agency would conduct "the necessary inspections to assure ourselves that the nuclear weapons programme in the DPRK has been abandoned and that all nuclear activity in the DPRK is subjected to safeguards and dedicated for peaceful purposes."

Dr. ElBaradei comments follow a joint statement released today by six nations at talks in Beijing on North Korea´s nuclear programme. The statement gives a commitment to denuclearise the Korean peninsula, for which negotiations began in August 2003, between China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.

"This is all very encouraging news," Dr. ElBaradei said. "It constitutes a balanced package in my view that addresses both the security needs of North Korea as well as the concerns of the international community about North Korea´s nuclear activities. It has been a long and complex process. The negotiation has been going on for more than two years but at the end negotiation pays," the IAEA Director General said.

When asked by reporters when IAEA inspectors would return, Dr. ElBaradei said a precise date was still to be fixed. However, the commitment was for North Korea to go back to inspections and the NPT at an early date.

"I certainly will be consulting with the DPRK, with the concerned parties and clearly the earlier we go back, the better. This is going to be a complex inspection process. We need again to reconstruct activities that have taken place since 2002, in fact even before 2002 because since 1993 we haven´t been able to perform comprehensive verification inspection in North Korea."

Dr. ElBaradei´s comments came before the opening of the Agency´s Board of Governors meeting this week. The Director General also briefed reporters on the Agency´s inspections in Iran, re-issuing his call for greater transparency. See Story Resources for a transcript of his remarks. Also see his statement to the Board.