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VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear assembly on Saturday passed a resolution urging all Middle East nations to renounce atom bombs in a vote most Arabs boycotted over amendments they felt took pressure off Israel. The vote was 82-0 with 13 abstentions but disenchantment reigned after days of wrangling between Israel and Western nations on one hand and Arab and Islamic states on the other that polarized a body that normally operates on consensus. The rare ballot at the weeklong annual assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency was non-binding but highlighted deep tensions over Israel's presumed nuclear might and...

At its annual Vienna powwow this week, the world's nuclear watchdog is taking Iran for a few spins over its atomic ambitions. But the mullahs in Tehran know this diplomatic waltz well, and they can rest assured the dance merely frees up more time and space for them to get their bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency report does at least tell us the Iranians are closer than ever to becoming a nuclear power. In unusually scathing terms for an outfit disinclined to criticize Iran, the IAEA lays bare Tehran's lack of cooperation and implies it was hiding illegal military...

Vienna: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference started on Monday with Syria, Iran and Israel in the spotlight. Syria and Iran are trying to get a seat on the UN nuclear watchdog board, while Israel is taking fire from Islamic countries for its nuclear programme. The IAEA's 145 member countries gathered in Vienna for the 52nd general conference, an annual meeting to draw up general policies on nuclear issues. Board members are designated and elected each year by the general conference. A seat is set to become free this year with the expiry of Pakistan's one-year term. Diplomats close...

TEHRAN (AFP) — The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation Gholamreza Aghazadeh will not take part in the UN nuclear watchdog's annual assembly opening on Monday, the ISNA news agency reported on Sunday. The news came just a day after the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a new resolution again urging Iran to suspend its sensitive uranium enrichment work but offering no new sanctions and merely reaffirming existing ones. ISNA quoted an unnamed official as saying that Aghazadeh would not be joining the September 29 to October 4 General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna for "unknown...

MUNICH - Iran is on its way to mastering technology that would enable it to build atomic bombs, if it so chose, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei said in remarks published on Friday. Iran says its uranium-enrichment program is only for civilian purposes -- electricity generation -- but is under IAEA investigation and U.N. sanctions over past undeclared activity and failure to prove its intentions are wholly peaceful. ElBaradei said having nuclear arms unfortunately still symbolized prestige and power, tempting nations with security worries to at least develop the potential for a bomb through the "dual use" enrichment...

VIENNA - An International Atomic Energy Agency inquiry into Syria's nuclear activity has been set back by the August assassination of the IAEA's main Syrian contact, the U.N. watchdog's chief said on Thursday. Diplomats familiar with the matter identified the official as Brigadier General Mohammad Suleiman, 49, a senior security adviser to President Bashar al-Assad. A sniper shot him dead on a Mediterranean beach, Syrian opposition websites said. "The assassination of the IAEA's main interlocutor has made our inquiry more difficult," agency Director Mohamed ElBaradei said during a closed-door meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation governing board on the status of...

On September 25, there will be a press conference and a rally outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City at 5:30 p.m. to protest the five Christian organizations that are welcoming Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Those organizations are the World Council of Churches, Religions for Peace, the Americans Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee and the Quaker United Nations Office; they are hosting a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner (Iftar). Over 50 organizations have now joined the protest, which is being sponsored by Women International; see www.925rally.org for more information. Catholic League president Bill Donohue explains why his organization is...

N. Korea notified IAEA that they will reload nuclear materials(into the reactor) next week.

We have long felt that Mohamed ElBaradei and his United Nations nuclear inspectors were too patient with Iran’s cat-and-mouse games and constant evasions. Even their patience is running out. In a report last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency declared that it had reached an impasse over Tehran’s refusal to answer questions about its past nuclear activities. (An official close to the agency told The Times: “We seem to be at a dead end.”) The report also said that Iran had substantially improved its ability to produce nuclear fuel in direct defiance of a Security Council ban. We know that...

AMID THE financial crisis and the worsening violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iran's nuclear program and Western efforts to stop it have slipped down Washington's list of priorities. That's just what Tehran's ruling mullahs were hoping for. The government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still stonewalling international inspectors trying to investigate evidence that Iran has secretly worked on nuclear bomb and missile warhead technology. This summer, it rebuffed the latest Western effort to open negotiations -- one whose only precondition was that Iran agree to a six-week pause in adding centrifuges to the 3,800 it has already installed in a uranium...

VIENNA, Austria: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned Monday that he cannot determine whether Iran is hiding some nuclear activities, comments that appeared to reflect a high level of frustration with stonewalling of his investigators. IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran's stonewalling of his agency was a "serious concern." "Iran needs to give the agency substantive information" to clear up suspicions, he said at the start of a 35-nation board IAEA meeting, in comments made available to reporters. Diplomats at the gathering described ElBaradei's comments as unusually blunt. ElBaradei rejected the Iranian suggestion that the IAEA probe...

IAEA investigators suspect Damascus may have ordered traces of alleged reactor bulldozed, covered with concrete after Israel bombed site in order to hide evidence of nuclear activity – causing UN probe to come up empty-handed UN investigators believe Syria may have buried under concrete traces of what Washington suspects was a covert nuclear reactor at a site bombed by Israel a year ago, diplomats said on Sunday. The International Atomic Energy Agency began probing Syria in April based on US Intelligence suggesting a remote desert complex targeted by Israel was a reactor almost completed with North Korean help and designed...

VIENNA, Austria - The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned Monday that Iran may be hiding secret nuclear activities, comments that appeared to reflect a high level of frustration with stonewalling of his investigators

Partial results of samples from a Syrian site bombed by Israel show nothing to back up US assertions that the target was a secret nuclear reactor, diplomats said Saturday. The diplomats cautioned that the results from the International Atomic Energy Agency probe are preliminary because findings of more detailed environmental tests are still outstanding. Still, two of the three who spoke to The Associated Press said that IAEA officials did not expect the results from the samples still being tested to strongly contradict the first results. All three diplomats were informed of the status of the IAEA probe but demanded...

The UN nuclear watchdog has shown its members documents and photographs suggesting that Iran secretly tried to modify a missile cone to carry a nuclear bomb, diplomats said.

VIENNA, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - Iran and Syria, both under fire for allegedly engaging in clandestine nuclear activity, are two possible candidates for a seat on the board of the UN atomic watchdog, much to the consternation of Western states, diplomatic sources said Friday. Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board of governors are designated and elected each year by the body's highest policy-making body, the General Conference, which comprises all 144 member states. As of this year, there will be 145 members and this year's General Conference will be held from September 29 until October 4....

Intelligence obtained by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reveals that Iran has been modifying its Shihab-3 ballistic missiles to carry nuclear warheads. IAEA agents presented the intelligence on Tuesday after Iran rejected their requests to formally examine its ballistic missile program alongside an ongoing investigation into the intents of its nuclear program. Senior IAEA officials called the information “very credible” and demanded that Iran provide “substantive responses.”

Foreign Policy: The U.N. is complaining about Tehran keeping inspectors from monitoring the regime's uranium enrichment program. Sadly, complaining is about the only thing the U.N. will ever do about the situation.What was it — 17? — resolutions the U.N.'s own Security Council passed against Iraq's Saddam Hussein before the U.S. acted to rid the world of that deranged and dangerous dictator? It doesn't look like Iran's equally deranged president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or the mullahs who pull his strings are going to be any more responsive. Throughout its enrichment process, Tehran has maintained its atomic program is for peaceful purposes...

TEHRAN — Iran warned on Tuesday it will not respond to every adverse claim about its nuclear drive, after a damning report from the UN atomic watchdog left the global community divided about future action. Amid fears that one response might be a US or Israeli strike on Tehran's nuclear programme, a top aide to Iran's supreme leader warned again that Iran could bring oil shipments from the Gulf to a halt if attacked. "We are against offering the agency an open door once more and that they expect Iran to respond to any claim," said Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of...

The U.N. nuclear watchdog showed documents and photographs on Tuesday suggesting Iran secretly tried to modify a missile cone to fit a nuclear bomb, diplomats said, and Tehran again dismissed the findings as forged. Iran said an International Atomic Energy Agency inquiry into its nuclear activity was at a dead-end because the IAEA was demanding Tehran reveal conventional military secrets without nuclear dimensions. Iran has denied seeking atom bombs. The Vienna-based U.N. watchdog said in a report on Monday that Iranian stonewalling had brought an agency inquiry to resolve whether Tehran had covertly researched ways to make a nuclear bomb...

so yeah

Iranian stonewalling has stalled a U.N. investigation into whether Iran conducted nuclear weapons research, according to a new U.N. nuclear watchdog report that for the first time raised the possibility that foreign experts may have assisted in Iranian nuclear experiments.

WASHINGTON — The White House warned Iran Monday it faces possible new sanctions over its suspect nuclear program, but allowed that US-Russia tensions make seeking new UN action "slightly more complicated." "We are working to find out with our allies what the next course of action would be," spokeswoman Dana Perino said after the UN atomic watchdog reported it had been unable to make much progress in probing Tehran's nuclear drive. Asked what impact the bitter feud between Washington and Moscow would have on securing fresh action in the UN Security Council where Russia has a veto power, Perino replied:...

VIENNA - Iran has blocked a U.N. inquiry into whether it researched ways to make a nuclear bomb, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday, as Britain said it would push hard for tougher sanctions against Tehran. A confidential IAEA report said Iran had raised the number of centrifuges enriching uranium by 500 to 3,820 since May and was stepping up development of an advanced model able to refine nuclear fuel 2-3 times faster, in defiance of U.N. resolutions. But a senior U.N. official familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency findings said Iran seemed a good two years away...

Iran has substantially improved the efficiency of its centrifuges that produce enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday, indicating that the nation has overcome some of the technical challenges that had plagued its enrichment program. In a six-page report, the agency charged the Iranians with continuing to stonewall about what some Western governments suspected was Iran's past research on designing a nuclear weapon. The agency acknowledged that it had failed "to make any substantial progress" in its investigation. "We seem to be at a dead end," said a senior official with links to the agency. "We would describe...

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has not resolved questions about a possible military dimension to Iran's nuclear programme. In its latest report, the UN nuclear watchdog said it had failed to make meaningful progress in assessing Iran's past nuclear activities. Iran was also continuing to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution, it said. The US said Iran could face further sanctions unless it changed course. Iran says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at civilian atomic energy, but Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon. 'No credible assurances' In its...

VIENNA (AFP) - The UN nuclear watchdog IAEA will publish its latest report on Iran's nuclear programme as early as Monday afternoon, sources close to the agency said Sunday.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has dismissed tougher sanctions against Iran as ineffective. In an interview with the London-based Azzaman newspaper published on Saturday, ElBaradei said, “In my opinion new sanctions will not resolve Iran’s nuclear dispute.” He went on to say that a military attack against Iran is the worst alternative to end the standoff between Iran and the West. Britain, France, Germany and the United States are considering imposing additional sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its nuclear enrichment work.

Diplomats say Syria has blocked a new visit by International Atomic Energy Agency experts investigating allegations that Damascus has a secret nuclear program. The diplomats say the request for a follow-up visit to one in June was rejected late last month. They also tell The Associated Press that Washington is lobbying IAEA board members to oppose a Syrian push for a seat on the 35-nation board. The board normally makes decisions by consensus and a seat held by Damascus could thus hamper any investigation into its alleged nuclear activities. Lack of IAEA access could cripple chances of establishing whether Damascus...

There has been a plutonium leak at a site run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Austria. UN nuclear monitors said pressure had built up and plutonium had contaminated a storage-room at the Seibersdorf laboratory, south of Vienna. Last year the head of the IAEA warned the facility was outdated and did not meet UN safety standards. Austrian officials said the empty lab had been sealed off and no-one was at risk. An investigation is planned. The lab is used to carry out tests on samples taken during IAEA inspection missions. El-Baradei warning "Pressure build-up in a small...

Vienna - India's nuclear trade deal with the United States might create a precedent for Israel, an Iranian diplomat warned on Friday, as the UN nuclear watchdog prepared to approve an inspection plan for India that is part of the bilateral deal. Under its 2005 deal with the US, India is to receive nuclear supplies in return for opening its nuclear energy sector to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, despite the fact that - like Israel - it is a nuclear weapons country not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "There is serious concern that the United States has...

'Secret N-plant Discovered at Al-Zarqan Area' July 29, 2008 Arab Times Al-Seyassah KUWAIT CITY -- A secret nuclear bomb manufacturing center at Al-Zarqan Area in Al-Ahwaziya Region, which was first established in 2000, was discovered recently, highly reliable sources told Al-Seyassah. Sources from Al-Ahwaziya claimed Tehran has started building a secret nuclear plant for manufacturing atomic bombs in Al-Zarqan Area near Al-Ahwaz City in southwest Iran and its border with Iraq. Sources said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is not aware of this plant since it was not included in negotiations with Iran held in Geneva at the beginning...

VIENNA - Diplomatic masques are coming off. The Jerusalem Post/AP have just reported Tehran has announced the end of any further cooperation with the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) based in Vienna. The angry announcement was made by Iran Vice-President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh today, Thursday, in response to allegations by some of the IAEA thirty-five board members, based on U.S. and other intelligence, that the uranium Iran is enriching can make nuclear warheads for ballistic missiles. Knowing Tehran's offensive foreign policy this should not be a revelation. It was known Iran's nuclear program was revived in the early...

That face-to-facer in Geneva’s really paying dividends, huh? This calls for more diplomacy. The [UN] investigation ran into trouble just months after being launched [last year]. Deadline after deadline was extended because of Iranian foot-dragging. The probe, originally meant to be completed late last year, spilled into the first months of 2008, and beyond… Officials say that among the evidence given to the IAEA are what seem to be Iranian draft plans to refit missiles with nuclear warheads; explosives tests that could be used to develop a nuclear detonator, and a drawing showing how to mold uranium metal into the...

Iran has signalled it will no longer co-operate with International Atomic Energy Agency experts investigating for signs of nuclear weapons programmes, confirming that the probe - launched a year ago with great expectations - was at a dead end. Coming from Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the announcement compounded international scepticism about denting Tehran's nuclear defiance just five days after Tehran stonewalled demands from six world powers to suspend activities that can produce the fissile core of warheads. Besides demanding a stop to uranium enrichment - which can create both fuel and the nuclear missile payloads - the international...

New intelligence continues to blast away like a sledgehammer at Iran’s rocklike insistence that its nuclear program is purely peaceful and not a nuclear weapons effort as many strongly believe. The latest evidence comes out of the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which released a nine-page report that casts serious doubt on Iran’s purported pacifist power program. In a dramatic change, based on new, multi-source, multilateral intelligence received over time from its members, the IAEA has shifted its position from being unable to prove Iran has a nuclear weapons program to being unable...

MOSCOW: Reiterating the need for a diplomatic solution of the vexed Iranian nuclear problem, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday urged Tehran to fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency to fully (IAEA) thrash out all the remaining issues. According to the Kremlin press office release, in his telephonic conversation with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoudy Ahmadinejad, Medvedev "urged Iran to fully cooperate" with the UN nuclear watchdog to clarify all the remaining issues." "Medvedev once more expressed Russia's view that the dispute over the Islamic Republic's controversial uranium enrichment programme should be resolved through diplomacy," the release said. Russia,...

UNITED NATIONS - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday made a fresh appeal to Iran to comply with UN demands that it halt sensitive nuclear fuel work and urged all Middle East parties to pursue peaceful dialogue. "I have been calling on Iranian authorities to fully comply with all relevant Security Council resolutions and continue their negotiations with European Union and concerned parties," he said on his return from a two-week, three-nation Asian tour. A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana refused to confirm Iranian press reports that he would visit the Iranian capital on July 19 to...

National Security: The jihadist threat once deemed laughable is a frightening possibility. As Iran tests its missiles, Iran's nuke may not be destined for Tel Aviv, but for the American heartland. Among the missiles Iran said it tested this week was a new version of the Shahab-3, one with a range of 1,250 miles and armed with a one-ton conventional warhead. Mohammed ElBaradei, the Inspector Clouseau of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), recently said Iran could have a nuclear warhead for the Shahab within six months. In late May, the IAEA reported that Iran was working on a new...

For years, the media and Democrats have sold the public an understanding that Gerorge W. Bush fabricated a story that Saddam Hussein had a WMD program in order to justify invading Iraq, which invasion then becomes "based on a lie." About 550 metric tons of yellowcake concentrated uranium were recently shipped out of Iraq. It had been part of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. That much was recently reported by the Associated Press . I wrote an article for American Thinker that commented on that story the day it appeared. That yellowcake stockpile pre-dated 1991, and had been under the UN's...

Nearer to the Bomb July 07, 2008 International Herald Tribune Peter D. Zimmerman The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said last month that there was no danger that we would wake up one morning to find Iran the next nuclear power. He said that Iran would first have to leave the Nonproliferation Treaty, evict the IAEA's inspectors, "and then it would need at least ... six months to one year." That puts an Iranian nuclear capability well into the future, next year. Mohammed ElBaradei's comments came after Israel conducted a military exercise in which its warplanes flew...

In a May report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors, a panel of prominent international leaders recommends that the agency assume additional responsibilities and perhaps double its budget by 2020 in order to ensure a substantial expansion in nuclear power while preventing nuclear weapons proliferation. IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei established the commission in the fall of 2007 with the purpose of addressing future challenges to the agency. The 18-member group, composed of ministers, academics, politicians, scientists, and business leaders, was chaired by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and included other notable figures such as former U.S....

TEHRAN - Iran's parliament issued a statement on Tuesday saying the country could cease to cooperate with the United Nations nuclear watchdog if new sanctions are imposed over Iran's controversial nuclear program. Iran is currently under three sets of relatively mild UN Security Council sanctions for defying demands to halt uranium enrichment, which it says it needs purely for electricity generation despite Western suspicions that the program is geared toward weapons production. The statement signed by 201 of 209 lawmakers urged the European Union to pursue the diplomatic route rather than impose sanctions, saying that pressure will only prompt Tehran...

VIENNA - Syria gave U.N. investigators a good look at the site of what Washington says was a secret nuclear reactor before Israel destroyed it, but initial checks were inconclusive and more are needed, they said on Wednesday. Chief U.N. inspector Olli Heinonen said his team was able to take extensive environmental samples at the remote desert location and the sensitive inquiry was off to "a good start", with Syria's cooperation generally satisfactory at this stage. Heinonen, speaking to reporters on his return to Vienna after four days in Syria, said it was "too early" to draw conclusions about the...

The buzz circulating now is that IAEA Director Mohammed ElBaradei said on al-Arabiya that Iran could be months away from producing a nuclear weapon, as noted by AllahPundit at Hot Air and Jeff Stein at Congressional Quarterly. Hot Air actually nails it in interpreting that ElBaradei is not so much making a statement about the state of the Iranian nuclear-weapons program as he is projecting himself and the IAEA as the world's only line of defense against a nuclear-armed Iran. Frankly, there is no substantiative historical reason to place faith in such a claim. What's more, just about all analyses...

Musharraf toeing US line to break Pakistan: A Q Khan Thursday, June 26, 2008 News Desk RAWALPINDI: President Pervez Musharraf is working on the US agenda of dismembering Pakistan by 2015, a news agency reported here Wednesday quoting renowned Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. It quoted Dr Khan as having told an Urdu-language weekly published from New York in a telephonic interview that Musharraf is doing whatever the US wants. He said the US plans to break up Pakistan by 2015. Bitterly criticising the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said it is not an international organisation but...

WMD: Only last fall, the head of the U.N.'s nuclear "watchdog" said Iran would need three to eight years to acquire an atomic bomb. Now he says six months to a year. Is he dishonest or incompetent — or both?The new estimate by Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), came in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV last week. The interviewer followed up by asking the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize winner if he was asserting that "if Iran decides today to expel the IAEA from the country, it will need six months to produce weapons." To...

Why El-Baradei Threatened to Resign 23/06/2008 By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed Mohamed El-Baradei was chosen to serve as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after winning 33 out of 34 votes in a secret ballot. Despite the fact that most of IAEA's conflicts are attributable to Middle Eastern countries, notably Iran and Pakistan, no one objected to the appointment of an Arab Muslim. As a former jurist and politician in the Egyptian Foreign ministry with extensive experience with the IAEA, we do not doubt his competence. However, his appointment was politically motivated as a means of reassuring parties...

Following are excerpts from an interview with IAEA Director-General Dr. Muhammad Al-Baradei, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on June 20, 2008. Muhammad Al-Baradei: If Iran wants to turn to the production of nuclear weapons, it must leave the NPT, expel the IAEA inspectors, and then it would need at least... Considering the number of centrifuges and the quantity of uranium Iran has... Interviewer: How much time would it need? Muhammad Al-Baradei: It would need at least six months to one year. Therefore, Iran will not be able to reach the point where we would wake up one morning to an...

WMD: We wouldn't put up with crime scene investigations after suspects have been given months to dispose of evidence. Yet that's the approach the U.N.'s nuclear "watchdog" is taking toward Syria's nuclear program.British comic actor Peter Sellers has been dead a quarter-century, but the perfect successor to his portrayal of the bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies has emerged: the International Atomic Energy Agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei. His job is supposed to be to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and stop such means of mass annihilation from slipping into the hands of aggressors and terrorists. So...