Iran’s nuclear threat ‘hyped’, atomic watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei says Catherine Philp

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6817787.ece

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From The Times
September 2, 2009
Iran’s nuclear threat ‘hyped’, atomic watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei says
Catherine Philp

Iran’s nuclear threat has been “hyped” and there is no evidence that the Islamic Republic is close to producing a nuclear weapon, the outgoing head of the UN atomic watchdog said (Catherine Philp writes).

In an interview with the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Mohamed ElBaradei dismissed criticisms that he had covered up Iran’s nuclear ambitions, asserting that they had still not been proven.

“In many ways, I think the threat has been hyped,” he told the prodisarmament magazine. “Yes, there’s concern about Iran’s future intentions and Iran needs to be more transparent with the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] and international community. But the idea that we’ll wake up tomorrow and Iran will have a nuclear weapon is an idea that isn’t supported by the facts as we have seen them so far.”

Dr ElBaradei added that he believed sanctions and the use of force should be a last resort. “You can’t jump the gun, as the United States did in Iraq,” he said. “In total, one out of three Iraqis has had his or her life pulverised because of a war that never, in my view, should have been fought in the first place.”

In a report last week the IAEA said that Iran had slowed down its production of enriched uranium, which can be used to make a nuclear bomb, and agreed to tighter monitoring of its enrichment plant. The United States played down the report, saying that Iran was still not co-operating fully with the UN inspectors.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said that the IAEA report did not include a classified annex incriminating Iran. Israel has long been critical of Dr ElBaradei and asked in 2007 that he be dismissed. He is due to step down at the end of November, handing over to Yukiya Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat.