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International Response: IAEA Chief Discusses Iraq, North Korea, Nuclear Terrorism By Jim Wurst Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly as it took up the IAEA’s annual report, ElBaradei said the new inspection regime for Iraq — adopted Friday when the Security Council approved Resolution 1441 — depends on “five interrelated prerequisites” (see GSN, Nov. 8). These include “full and explicit authority for inspection, with immediate and unfettered access to any location or site in Iraq;” access to all sources of information, from Iraq and other countries; “unified and full support” from the Security Council; “the preservation of integrity and impartiality” of inspections; and “active cooperation from Iraq.” ElBaradei said that before the inspections ended in late 1998, the IAEA “had successfully thwarted Iraq’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapons program by destroying, removing or rendering harmless all of Iraq’s facilities … relevant to nuclear weapons production.” Since the inspectors left, he said, “We have continued to use satellite monitoring and conduct other analytical work. However, no remote analysis can enable us to reach conclusions without thorough on-site inspections.” No Progress on Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Not only Iraq, but the whole of the Middle East is on the IAEA’s agenda. ElBaradei said the agency’s General Conference gave him the mandate to consult with nations in the region “on the application of full-scope safeguards to all nuclear activities in the Middle East … that would contribute to the establishment of a nuclear weapon-free zone in that region” (see GSN, Sept. 25). He added, “I regret to report that I have not been in a position to make progress in the implementation of this important mandate of direct relevance to security in the Middle East.” The General Assembly was debating a draft resolution welcoming the IAEA’s report. The report covers calendar year 2001 and was published in August 2002, thus it does not include the latest revelations about North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs or recent developments on weapons inspections for Iraq. The Iraq section of the report simply says the IAEA has been “unable to implement its inspection program as mandated by [Security Council] resolutions.” The IAEA has conducted inspections in Iraq under the more limited provisions of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — only a few sites are subject to NPT safeguards — and reported that none of the nuclear material under safeguards has been diverted (see GSN, Jan. 31). NPT inspections “do not serve as a substitute for the verification activities required by the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, nor do they provide the assurances sought by the council,” the report says. On North Korea, the report says the IAEA is “unable to verify the correctness and completeness” of North Korea’s declarations of its stock of weapons-grade nuclear materials, therefore the country “remains in noncompliance with its safeguards agreement.” ElBaradei added, “Our estimation is that the work required to verify the correctness and completeness of [North Korea’s] declaration could take up to three or four years.” Nuclear Terrorism ElBaradei said his agency has stepped up efforts to counter nuclear terrorism. After Sept. 11, he said, ”the IAEA moved swiftly to conduct a thorough review of its programs related to preventing acts of nuclear and radiological terrorism, and to develop a comprehensive plan for upgrading nuclear security worldwide.” The plan includes physical protection of material and facilities and “the detection of malicious activities involving nuclear and other radioactive materials, such as illicit trafficking across borders.” The report details the agency’s effort to assist states in securing nuclear material against theft and, failing that, setting up a system to detect nuclear material being taken illegally across international borders (see GSN, Mar. 20). Monitoring the weapons-capable programs of other countries is also part of the IAEA mandate. After Iraqi evasions came to light in the mid-1990s, “the international community committed itself to provide assurance not only that declared nuclear material has not been diverted for nonpeaceful purposes, but equally important, that no undeclared nuclear material or activities exist,” said ElBaradei. The broader authority is in new safeguard agreements the agency concludes with the 188 parties to the NPT. However, he said, only 28 such agreements have entered into force (see GSN, Sept. 25). “This is clearly not a satisfactory situation … The agency can only provide the required assurances if we are given the corresponding authority,” he added. Voting 138-1, the General Assembly adopted the resolution endorsing the report. North Korea voted against the resolution, and Angola and Vietnam abstained. Iraq cannot vote in the assembly because it is more than two years behind in its dues to the United Nations. The resolution asks governments to enter into safeguards agreements on their nuclear weapons-capable facilities with the IAEA, to improve nuclear safety, to fully fund the IAEA and commends the agency’s efforts to monitor the Iraq’s and North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. It has been a routine matter over the last several years for Iraq and North Korea to object to how they are portrayed in the report and the resolution. In recent years, when the resolution accepting the report has been debated, Iraq wanted the resolution changed to acknowledge its cooperation with the agency. Rather than vote down the amendments, opponents of the Iraqi proposals vote not to take action on them. This year, the paragraph on Iraq noted “the increasing concern” that inspectors have been out of the country for nearly four years and that the longer they are out, “the more difficult it will be to re-establish a level of knowledge of the status of Iraq’s nuclear-related assets.” The paragraph also notes Iraq’s September decision to readmit inspectors. Iraq wanted to replace that wording with its own that would welcome the September decision to allow the return of inspectors “without conditions” and quoted Secretary General Kofi Annan’s remark at the time that the move was “the indispensable first step towards an assurance that Iraq” has no weapons of mass destruction and “towards a comprehensive solution that includes the suspension and eventual ending of the sanctions.” Iraq’s representative, Mohammad Salman, called this a “factual text” that provided “needed balance.” The sponsors of the resolution, led by Kuwait, the current chair of the IAEA’s Board of Governors, won on a vote not to consider the amendment, 86-11, with 26 abstentions. The IAEA report also covers nuclear power, safe disposal of radioactive waste and the use of nuclear technology in agriculture and medicine.
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