IAEA chief remains worried about Iran nukes

updated 1:02 p.m. ET March 5, 2007

VIENNA, Austria - The chief U.N. nuclear inspector said Monday his agency cannot be sure if Iran’s nuclear activities are peaceful or a cover for a weapons program until the country cooperates with his experts.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, spoke as board member nations of the IAEA gathered for a session on approving the suspension of dozens of technical aid programs to Iran as part of Security Council sanctions meant to punish the country for its nuclear defiance.

Although the issue is not expected to come up until Tuesday at the earliest, the focus of the IAEA’s 35-nation board meeting will be on Iran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment activities and linked problems.

The board also will be reviewing another key nuclear issue — North Korea’s apparent willingness to ultimately dismantle its nuclear arms-making capabilities based on the Feb. 13 agreement when it pledged to take initial steps to dismantle its atomic program in return for aid.

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief delegate to the IAEA, again said his country would “never give up its inalienable right” to develop enrichment — which Iran says it wants to develop to generate power but which also can produce the fissile material for nuclear warheads.

ElBaradei told reporters that Iran appeared to have paused in developing its enrichment program amid Security Council deliberations on sharpening existing sanctions imposed because Tehran refuses freeze enrichment activities.

“I do not believe that the number of centrifuges has increased, nor do I believe that nuclear material has been introduced to the centrifuges at Natanz,” he said, referring to the machines used to enrich uranium. “The situation today is still very much R&D activities.”

In opening remarks to the gathering, ElBaradei said that despite four years of probing Iran’s nuclear activities, the IAEA remains “unable to provide the required assurance about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.”

Cooperation ‘long overdue’
International concern would not subside until the country takes “the long overdue decision” to cooperate with the IAEA, he said.

“Quite a few uncertainties still remain about experiments, procurements and other (nuclear) activities,” he said, alluding to a constant theme in IAEA reports over the past years — refusal by Iran to meet agency requests for clarification about aspects of its program with possible weapons applications.

Most recently, diplomats familiar with the agency’s Iran file said before the closed meeting that the country continues to refuse IAEA requests to put up cameras that would give agency monitors a full view of in its underground hall at Natanz, which Iran says will ultimately house 54,000 enriching centrifuges — enough to produce dozens of nuclear weapons a year.

One of the diplomats, who demanded anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss the confidential file with the media, said Iran continues to assemble individual centrifuges in the hall.

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