IAEA chief: Conclusions on Iran's nuclear program to echo worldwide
By Yossi Melman and Shlomo Shamir
January 16, 2006
Haaretz
Original Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/670595.html


The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency is preparing to tell the world he cannot yet confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's atomic program, according to an interview released on Sunday.

Mohamed ElBaradei, who won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize along with his International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran might not seem to care, but if I say that I am not able to confirm the peaceful nature of that program after three years of intensive work, well, that's a conclusion that's going to reverberate ... around the world.

In the interview with Newsweek magazine, ElBaradei said Iran knows what it must do to satisfy his concerns and he will not extend the deadline for his next report on the nuclear program beyond a March 6 deadline.

For the last three years we have been doing intensive verification in Iran and even after three years, I am not yet in a position to make a judgment on the peaceful nature of the program, he said.

We still need to assure ourselves through access to documents, individuals and locations that we have seen all that we ought to see and that there is nothing fishy, if you like, about the program, he added.

Asked if Iran was buying time to build a bomb, ElBaradei replied: That's why I said we are coming to the litmus test in the next few weeks.

ElBaradei said he does not exclude the possibility that Iran may have another more secret nuclear weapons program that is separate from the activities the IAEA knows about.

And if they have the nuclear material and they have a parallel weaponization program along the way, they are really not very far - a few months - from a weapon, he said.

Iranian FM warns of oil crisis
Iranian Finance Minister Davood Danesh Jafari said on an Iranian radio station Sunday that any Western sanction placed on Iran in response to its nuclear development program could raise global oil prices.

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that Iran will consider using its control over oil prices as retalliation for potential sanctions on Iran. 

Ahmadinejad said Saturday that he will not yield to international pressure to back down from its resumption of controversial nuclear research as calls increase from the West to defer the issue to the United Nations Security Council. 

The council can levy sanctions on Iran. The five permanent members of the council, who hold veto power in the international body - the United States, England, France, China and Russia - plan to meet in London on Monday to discuss the matter.

On the diplomatic front, attempts are being made to assemble a majority in the International Atomic Energy Agancy (IAEA) to send the issue to the Security Council. The United States, Germany and England said over the weekend that the diplomatic route with Tehran has reached a dead end, while Russia's and China's positions are unclear. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed over the weekend that he still has faith in diplomatic dialogue with Tehran. 

In a press conference on Friday, Annan said that he had spoken to the Iranian representative in the IAEA in Vienna, Ali Laridziani, who said Iran is interested in serious and constructive negotiations, but without time constraints. 

Ambassadors from both the United States and the EU slammed Annan's spin on the Iranian response. They said that in light of the general international consensus that the Western diplomatic contact with Iran has reached its limit, the matter should be deferred to the Security Council. 

Merkel to push Putin on Iran
German Chancellor Angela Merkel heads to Moscow on Monday where she hopes to persuade President Vladimir Putin to join the EU and United States in ratcheting up diplomatic pressure on Iran, German officials said.

On her first visit to the Russian capital since taking over from Putin's close friend Gerhard Schroeder, Merkel will meet with Putin for about two hours to discuss Iran, energy ties, the situation in Chechnya and other issues, the officials said.

The Iran issue will be in the foreground of the visit, a German government told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Merkel, who just returned from her first official trip to Washington, agreed with U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday that it was time to refer Iran to the UN Security Council over its refusal to abandon uranium enrichment technology that could enable it to get atomic weapons, the officials said.

In Washington the hope was expressed that there could be common approach by the EU, USA and Russia, one official said.

The officials said Russia has also expressed displeasure at Iran's rejection of Moscow's proposal to set up a joint venture inside Russia that would enable Tehran to produce nuclear fuel for what it says is an atomic energy programme that is exclusively peaceful in nature.

Germany is the world's top exporter of goods to Iran and would have much to lose if Tehran faced sanctions. It exported 4 billion euros of goods to Iran last year. 

Russia also has significant business interests there and fears sending Iran to the Security Council could escalate Tehran's standoff with West into an international crisis. Among other projects, Moscow is building a e1 billion nuclear power plant at Bushehr in Iran and hopes to build more.