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Iran on Monday dramatically raised the stakes in its showdown with the West over its nuclear program by threatening to resume work at a sealed uranium-enrichment research facility. Iran had previously agreed to have the enrichment equipment at the Natanz facility sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a good-faith gesture towards the three European countries with which it had been negotiating. Tehran insists on exercising its right to enrich uranium as part of a civilian nuclear energy program, but the same technology would allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon - and the Western powers...
...said. “In terms of nuclear disarmament, there is a place for every citizen to contribute....I believe we need every society to step up to the plate.” ElBaradei was jointly awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a body affiliated with the UN for which he has served as director general since 1997. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee commended ElBaradei’s “efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used...
...ElBaradei certainly needs all the support he can muster as he confronts concerns over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. and key European countries want the IAEA'S 35-member board to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for action over its failure, over a decade, to disclose various aspects of a program Tehran insists is for civilian energy purposes, but which Western governments suspect is a covert bomb program. But many members of the IAEA board are reluctant to foment a confrontation over the issue...
...ElBaradei's view that countries, such as North Korea, who claim to covet nuclear weapons a deterrent to aggression by current nuclear-armed states ought to be given security guarantees is not exactly conventional wisdom in Washington. The IAEA chief's critics charge that he had been overly legalistic, for example, declaring at one point that his inspectors in Iran had uncovered "no evidence" of non-compliance with existing rules despite the country's acknowledged long-term pattern of deception over aspects of its program. Still, the U.S. has had to accept that like the NPT itself, ElBaradei...
...Iran responded angrily to the vote. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called it "political, illegal and illogical." About 180 out of 290 lawmakers in Tehran said that their government should now limit cooperation with the IAEA. Iran has also threatened not to ratify an agreement that would have allowed more intrusive UN inspections and to start enriching uranium despite international pressure not to do so. Opponents of taking the matter to the Security Council worry that, if pressed further, Iran might throw out inspectors altogether and withdraw from its obligations under the NPT as North Korea did last year and Saddam...