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IAEA Pressures Iran for More Cooperation By Greg Webb VIENNA — The top international nuclear inspections official today pressed Iran to improve its efforts to disclose its past and present nuclear activities (see GSN, Feb. 16). The call for more transparency followed weekend reports that Iran in 1987 rejected an opportunity to purchase nuclear weapons technology from the nuclear smuggling network that was once led by top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan (see related GSN story, today). Iran must “go out of its way to bring these issues to a close,” said International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. He spoke to reporters before entering a quarterly meeting of the agency’s Board of Governors. In that meeting, ElBaradei chided Tehran for creating a “confidence deficit,” and said “it is therefore essential that Iran works closely with the agency in a proactive manner in order for us to build the necessary confidence,” according to statement released later. Nevertheless, he expressed appreciation for the information Iran has offered since February 2003, when Tehran publicly disclosed that it had concealed an extensive nuclear research program for nearly two decades. Iran’s decision to go public — and to allow the agency to examine what Tehran says is its complete nuclear complex — has resulted in a steady flow of new reports for the agency to analyze. “We are moving forward, we are making progress,” ElBaradei told reporters. As the agency board meets this week, Iran’s nuclear activities are expected to dominate the substantive discussion, although the board is unlikely to issue a formal statement or decision. For the time being the agency and its board are content to allow more time for European nations to negotiate a deal with Iran on its nuclear program. Those talks received a boost following U.S. President George W. Bush’s European visit last week, when he reportedly agreed to consider U.S. participation in an incentives package for Iran in exchange for Tehran ending any potential weapons work (see related GSN story, today). Such a U.S. policy would represent a significant change of course for the Bush administration, which has so far completely avoided the European-Iranian negotiations by refusing to talk with Iran directly or even discuss the talks with EU allies. The new policy could reflect the administration’s acceptance of a more pragmatic strategy, said a Western diplomat. “It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s livable,” he said. “What choice do we really have?” Other IAEA BusinessThis week’s meeting is also expected to address two other less urgent issues: Egypt’s past nuclear activities and ElBaradei’s pursuit of a third term leading the agency. In a report issued to the board earlier this month, ElBaradei outlined a series of low-level nuclear activities in Egypt that he said should have been reported to the agency (see GSN, Feb. 14). The activities included apparent research into aspects of developing uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing technologies. Egyptian scientists conducted some of the experiments as recently as 2003, ElBaradei’s report says, concluding that “the agency has identified a number of failures by Egypt to report to the agency.” The board is expected this week to issue a reprimand to Egypt along the lines of its November response to similar transgressions committed by South Korea (see GSN, Nov. 26, 2004). In addition, the board is expected to discuss ElBaradei’s candidacy for a third term. The United States, which believes that ElBaradei has not been tough enough on nations such as Iran and Iraq, has conducted a campaign opposing ElBaradei’s election, including an apparently unfruitful effort to tap his phones to uncover unsavory information (see GSN, Dec. 13, 2004). Such efforts have so far produced little support for the U.S. position, though the IAEA board has yet to endorse ElBaradei. Board members are expected to discuss the issue further this week, but probably not reach a final decision.
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