By DPA
Washington/New York : The White House insisted Monday that Iran wants to build nuclear weapons, even though the head of the UN watchdog agency said he has “no concrete evidence” of a weapons programme.
“This is a country that is enriching and reprocessing uranium, and the reason that one does that is to lead towards a nuclear weapon,” US President George W Bush’s spokeswoman Dana Perino said of Iran.
She was responding to remarks by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed ElBaradei, who said Sunday that diplomacy should be given time to resolve US-led concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities and questioned the effectiveness of sanctions against Iran.
In the broadcast interview, ElBaradei said that IAEA officials “haven’t seen any concrete evidence” that Iran is already building nuclear arms.
On Monday, ElBaradei told the UN General Assembly in New York that his inspectors had determined that Iran has not in fact diverted “declared” nuclear material for purposes other than civilian use. He said Iran had cooperated by providing additional access “to resolve a number of long-outstanding issues, such as the scope and nature of past plutonium experiments.”
But Iran had defied the UN Security Council by refusing to suspend its enrichment-related activities despite year-old sanctions.
“This is regrettable,” he said.
The US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters that ElBaradei’s mandate has been to get an agreement with Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme. He said unless Iran complies with UN demands, a new resolution would be considered to increase sanctions.
“Diplomacy requires additional pressure on Iran to cooperate,” Khalilzad said.
ElBaradei told the UN that his agency and Iran have agreed on a “work plan” to resolve all outstanding verification issues, and said the agreement was “an important step in the right direction.”
Since the IAEA had provided “credible assurance” of Iran’s peaceful use of nuclear power in the past as well as its current programme, then it could create “conditions for a comprehensive and durable solution,” ElBaradei said.
“Such a solution could assure the international community about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme, while enabling Iran to make full use of nuclear technology for economic and social development,” he said.
In a sign of impatience with UN Security Council action against Iran, the United States last week slapped sanctions on an elite Iranian military unit and banks suspected of backing terrorism and the development of nuclear weapons.
Bush has also stepped up US rhetoric against Iran, warning on October 17 that Iran’s obtaining “the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon” could lead to World War III.
“I think everybody agrees that sanctions alone will not lead to a durable solution,” ElBaradei said.
He called for direct US-Iranian talks to resolve the dispute, which the Bush administration calls the world’s top security challenge.
“So there is a concern, but there is also time to clarify these concerns,” ElBaradei said.
The US accuses Iran of secretly seeking nuclear arms. Iran says its enrichment activities are aimed only at building nuclear power plants.