IAEA looks at Iran's nuclear past
ElBaradei asks Iran to provide more information about past dealings with nuclear smuggling ring.
As the International Atomic Energy Agency began a board meeting in Vienna on Monday, the
Associated Press reports that IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei called on Iran to
cooperate with the agency in its investigation of the country's past nuclear activities. Sunday
The Washington Post reported that
international investigators had disovered that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had given Iran a written offer to supply the basics of a nuclear weapons program.
The meeting, believed to have taken place in a dusty Dubai office in 1987, kick-started Tehran's nuclear efforts and Khan's black market. Iran, which was at war with Iraq then, bought centrifuge designs and a starter kit for uranium enrichment. But Tehran recently told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it turned down the chance to buy the more sensitive equipment required for building the core of a bomb.
The
Post reports that US officials believed that Iran used the documentation as a "buyer's guide," and purchased some of the "pricer items" elsewhere. Iran continues to insist that it has
no desire to build a bomb and will only use nuclear technology for "peaceful purposes."
The New York Times reports that Iran has "
reluctantly turned over new evidence" that affirms the conversations with Mr. Khan 18 years ago. The
Times says the confirmation of the meetings does not prove that Iran has been "secretly seeking to make a bomb," but it does show how "aggressively" Khan's network was "peddling the technology" to Iran. Investigators say Iran cut back on its contacts with the network in the mid-90s.
'It adds a piece to the puzzle that makes the whole thing more incriminating,' said one European official with access to the intelligence. 'But is this a smoking gun? No. Does this make people more suspicious? Yes.'
Pakistan, meanwhile, said the
Post story "
offered nothing new" and dismissed it as an "old story." Pakistan
has never allowed the IAEA to question Mr. Kahn about his activities in the 80s selling, when he smuggled nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
The Daily Times of Pakistan reports that one of the troubling aspects of this story is that the US and Britain had been aware of Khan's network
for about 18 months when the Iran in Dubai meeting took place.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the US had adopted a "watch-and-wait policy" in regards to Khan's activities, which allowed him to go from "a secretive procurer of technology for Pakistan's atomic weapons program" 20 years ago to "history's biggest independent seller of nuclear weapons equipment and expertise."
In spite of the information about the meeting with Khan, Mr. ElBaradei is also expected to tell the meeting that there is
no new evidence that Iran is working on a nuclear weapons program, and thus the IAEA board will not recommend UN Security Council sanctions against the country, which is what the United States had been hoping.
The Bush administration, however, might be willing to try another tactic with Iran.
The Washington Post reports that the US administration is "close to a decision
to join Europe in offering incentives to Iran" if Iran will give up any plans to develop a nuclear weapon. Incentives offered by the US and the EU would include membership in the World Trade Organization.
'The reason we're comfortable considering this tactically is because strategically, when the president was in Europe, he found them solid on the big issue: that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. Having found them firm on the strategic issue, he's more willing to consider the tactical aspects with the Europeans – including how do we work with them and what can the Europeans offer that we would be part of it,' said a senior State Department official speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive diplomacy.
Finally, the IAEA will tackle one other difficult issue during this week's meeting in Vienna – the decision of ElBaradei to run for a third term as director general, a move that has been strongly opposed by Washington. The
Financial Times of London reports that the biggest problem that US officials may have with ElBaradei is that
he was right, and they were wrong, about Iraq possessing nuclear weapons.
Before the war, he upset them by more or less declaring there was no evidence that Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program. After the war, he rubbed salt in that wound by being right. Before last November's US presidential election he reported that 350 tons of high explosive had gone missing from an Iraqi facility that the IAEA had been monitoring before the invasion. John Kerry ... seized on the missing explosive as evidence of further administration bungling in Iraq. Mr. ElBaradei was accused by Republicans of interfering in the election. But his supporters asked whether he was expected to keep such information secret, when it had implications for UN workers and others inside Iraq.
The Financial Times said that the question boils down to "how much political capital" is the US willing to burn, especially after President Bush's trip to Europe last week that "warmed" a relationship that had been "chilled over Iraq." ElBaradei is very popular with the Europeans (including Britain), and all other members of the IAEA. At one point, the US was actively campaigning to find someone among its allies to challenge ElBaradei for the position, but was unable to do so.
The Washington Times reported earlier this month that this failure to find a replacement has
not changed the US position on the director general.
'There are gracious ways to leave the stage,' the official said. 'ElBaradei has not chosen the gracious way, but that has not changed our view that we need a new IAEA head.'
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