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IAEA Board Takes on Iran Again By Greg Webb and Jim Wurst VIENNA — Two days after Iran’s newly elected president reasserted his nation’s right to produce nuclear fuel in the future, the chief of the world’s nuclear oversight agency said today Tehran must provide more information about its past programs before the agency could declare that Iran’s nuclear activities are peaceful (see GSN, Sept. 16). “Because of the history of the Iranian program, because we need to reconstruct 20 years of concealed activities, Iran needs to go out of its way and provide additional transparency measures, more than they have provided in the past, for us to be able to clarify, understand, and confirm the nature of Iran’s program,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters this morning at the outset of a quarterly meeting of the agency’s governing board. The Iranian nuclear issue has heated up recently as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, with U.S. support, today were circulating a draft board resolution that would report the matter to the U.N. Security Council for consideration, Reuters reported. Once there, Iran could become subject to economic sanctions or other penalties if the council concludes that its nuclear activities are not entirely peaceful. Typically, the agency Board of Governors makes decisions by consensus, but the EU nations are reportedly interested in seeking a Security Council referral decision by a simple majority vote if necessary (see GSN, Sept. 14). The latest EU push follows a Saturday speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who argued for Iran’s right to produce nuclear fuel and issued a not-so-veiled threat to nations that would oppose Tehran’s programs. “Regrettably we are going through a period of confrontation and political brinkmanship,” ElBaradei said this morning. IAEA PushElBaradei pressed Iran to offer more transparency to assuage international concerns. The agency needs more cooperation from Iran in several areas, “including access to certain sites, including access to certain individuals, including making a number of documents available,” ElBaradei said. In a report to the board issued earlier this month, ElBaradei highlighted areas that still concern the agency, particularly the history of Iran’s effort to acquire uranium enrichment centrifuges. How quickly the agency gives Iran a clean report would depend on the level of Iran’s cooperation, he said, but full clearance by the agency could not be achieved quickly. “We need to continue our redundancy verification activities in Iran over an extended period of time before we are able to say that everything is clear. That takes us a long time in any other country because that is an important conclusion and we do not reach it lightly. I’ve said before it will possibly take a longer time in Iran, but the more transparency we get, the quicker we can reach that conclusion,” ElBaradei said. The agency is also under pressure to investigate a series of claims from Iranian dissidents that Tehran’s nuclear program includes a number of covert facilities (see GSN, Sept. 7). The latest claims, made by an Iranian exile, assert that Iran is burrowing secret tunnels around the country to conceal nuclear equipment and activities, according to the Associated Press. Iran’s Nuclear ‘Proposal’In his speech Saturday to the General Assembly, Ahmadinejad presented a crisis resolution plan that Iranian diplomats advertised beforehand as a major new proposal. The main feature the plan, he said, called for Iran “to engage in serious partnership with private and public sectors of other countries in the implementation of uranium enrichment,” as a way to “further confidence-building measure[s] and in order to provide the greatest degree of transparency.” The details of this partnership, however, remain unclear, and diplomats at the agency here have not received any details. At a news conference after his speech, Ahmadinejad did not explain what his “It’s general in character; we need to understand what and how this proposal means in actual terms,” ElBaradei said today. Iran’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, Mohamed Mahdi Akhondzeh, said today that Tehran would provide technical details of the plan next week. One nonproliferation expert said the little that Ahmadinejad had described of his plan would surely be “a nonstarter for the Europeans.” “The proposal didn’t contain anything new. They made this suggestion a long time ago,” said Gary Samore, a former Clinton administration nonproliferation official who is now vice president of the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. “That they would allow international control or ownership of nuclear facilities would be rejected because Iran has a history of nationalizing industries,” and therefore it is unlikely that outside firms or nations would participate, he said. Ahmadinejad also reiterated Iran’s right to have its own nuclear facilities, particularly the ability to manufacture nuclear fuel, and urged the world to accept that right. Iran has claimed that its pursuit of uranium enrichment technology would be used to make fuel for a civilian nuclear power program, but U.S. officials have cautioned that the same enrichment facilities could produce nuclear-weapon materials. The Iranian president rejected EU proposals to guarantee the supply of nuclear fuel — if Iran agreed not to produce its own. “International precedence tells us that nuclear fuel delivery contracts are unreliable and no legally binding document or instrument exists to guarantee the delivery of nuclear fuel. On many occasions such bilateral contracts have either been suspended or stopped altogether for political reasons,” he said in his speech. Calling proliferation concerns over Iran “a propaganda ploy” led by “hegemonic powers,” Ahmadinejad warned that the international community should support his country’s plans. “If some try to impose their will on the Iranian people through resort to a language of force and threat to Iran, we will reconsider our entire approach to the nuclear issue,” he said. Western officials said the threat would backfire and would instead firm up opposition to Iran, the Washington Post reported today. At his post-speech press conference, however, Ahmadinejad denied using a threatening tone. “I try to dissect the threats that are threatening different nations, I try to identify the root causes and how we can eradicate them.” “We don't go looking for danger,” he said. “Nevertheless, in accordance with international law we insist on the right of our people.” To defend Iran’s rights “We have many things, many instruments, we are [a] bold, courageous culture. We have economic, we have political power,” he said. “This is purely a political campaign of little interest,” Ahmadinejad said of the push to have the Security Council consider Iran’s case. “When you see that one country or a number of countries are threatening the international community with referral to the Security Council, the Security Council is distancing from its real role and it is being turned into an instrument to further the intention of a number of countries.” In addition, Ahmadinejad sought to clarify earlier-reported remarks that Iran would be willing to share nuclear technology with other Islamic nations. He said he had been misquoted, but said that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty nevertheless “obliged” its parties to help other treaty members develop peaceful nuclear technology. “All of our activities are conducted in the context of the regulations of the agency, they are supervised and will be supervised by the agency,” he said. Greg Webb reported from Vienna and Jim Wurst from New York.
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