UN's Nuclear Watchdog, IAEA, rebuts claim Iran is trying to make A-bomb

[flpoljunkie]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article305741.ece

UN nuclear watchdog rebuts claims that Iran is trying to make A-bomb

By Anne Penketh

Published: 14 August 2005

The UN nuclear watchdog is preparing to publish evidence that Iran is not engaged in a nuclear weapons programme, undermining a warning of possible military action from President George Bush.

However, Iran is about to receive a major boost from the results of a scientific analysis that will prove that the country's authorities were telling the truth when they said they were not developing a nuclear weapon. The discovery of traces of weapons-grade uranium in Iran by UN inspectors in August 2003 set off alarm bells in Western capitals where it was feared that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon under cover of a civil programme. The inspectors took the samples from Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, which had been concealed from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for 18 years. But Iran maintained that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, and that the traces must have been contamination from the Pakistani-based black market network of scientist AQ Khan. He is the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb.

The analysis of components from Pakistan, obtained last May by the IAEA, is now almost complete and is set to conclude that the traces of weapons-grade uranium match those found in Iran. "The investigation is likely to show that they came from Pakistan," a Vienna-based diplomat told The Independent on Sunday.

The resumption of uranium conversion at the plant last week caused an international crisis and prompted Britain, France and Germany, which have been attempting to find a negotiated solution to the dispute, to call the emergency IAEA meeting. In its resolution concluding the meeting, the board also asked Dr ElBaradei to report back by 3 September. Hardliners on the board - including Britain, the United States and Canada - had hoped that Dr ElBaradei's next report would be sufficiently damning to increase the pressure on Iran.

However those hopes will be dashed by the revelation about the IAEA analysis of the particles from Pakistan, which will remove any chance of Iran being referred to the UN Security Council. But the IAEA is not closing the book on its investigation of Iran's possible weapons programme. A team of IAEA experts arrived in Iran on Friday to pursue other outstanding issues, but they are unlikely to be resolved by the time Dr ElBaradei reports to the board.

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[Waya]

1. Imagine that.....

...I'm getting a sense of Deja vu here......

[Canuckistanian]

2. Who do you trust?

The * administration or some UN agency?

Hahahahahahah, just kidding.

[flpoljunkie]

3. Why is US media silent on this. Surely, they cannot be unaware of this

impending IAEA report, can they? Can find not a word about this.

This article is from the UK's Independent.

[wli]

4. it isn't a reich wing rethuglican talking point for their propaganda n/t

[flpoljunkie]

5. Kick! Still not being reported in US Media.