El Baradei's appraisal of Iran mixed

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 21, 2003

El Baradei's appraisal of Iran mixed

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The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said yesterday that Iran was guilty of "breaches" of international non-proliferation obligations, language that echoes the accusations Washington has made against Teheran.

But the UN International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) chief Mohamed El Baradei told reporters ahead of a key meeting of the agency's Board of Governors that there was "a new spirit" of co-operation in Teheran.

He urged the 35-nation board to pass a resolution on Iran's two decades of concealment of its nuclear programme from the IAEA that both "strengthens my hand" and reacts to the "the bad news and the good news" about Iran's atomic programme.

"The bad news is that there have been failures and breaches, and the good news is that there is a new chapter in co-operation with Iran," El Baradei said.

One of the main items on the board's agenda is a draft resolution sponsored by France, Germany and Britain accusing Iran of "failures to meet safeguards obligations," a phrasing too mild for both Washington and, diplomats say, El Baradei.

In a new report on Iran, the IAEA said that over the last two decades Teheran had failed to comply with obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by - among other things - secretly producing plutonium and enriching uranium.

While ElBaradei's report said there was no evidence to support US allegations that Iran had a secret atomic weapons programme, he said the jury was still out on whether Teheran's nuclear ambitions were entirely peaceful as it insists.

"(Iran's) breaches and failures are, of themselves, a matter of deep concern and run counter to the both the letter and spirit of the (NPT) Safeguards Agreement," he said in the written text of a speech to the IAEA board.

The United States, which labelled Iran part of an "axis of evil," wants the board to find Iran in "non-compliance" with its NPT obligations and report Teheran to the UN Security Council, which can impose sanctions.

Iran recently agreed to sign the Additional Protocol to the NPT, which gives the IAEA the right to conduct more intrusive, snap inspections of atomic sites.

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