Agence France Presse – The UN atomic agency’s investigation of Iran’s nuclear program is still hampered by unanswered questions about sensitive work Tehran hid for almost two decades, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in comments released Tuesday.
"When we ask questions in Iran, we ask them because we want to reconstruct the ‘history’. What did Iran procure? Who was involved? What was a certain experiment for? When and where did it take place?," ElBaradei said.
The comments, released by his press office on Tuesday, were made last week after the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board of governors had indefinitely shelved technical aid for an Iranian nuclear reactor.
Tehran insists the reactor is for peaceful purposes only, but the United States argues that it could produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
ElBaradi said the aid was being turned down due to a lack of confidence in Iran’s nuclear program, at a time when the UN Security Council is considering imposing sanctions on Tehran for defying its call to suspend uranium enrichment.
Diplomats described ElBaradei’s impromptu speech that closed the board meeting on Thursday as indicative of his frustration that, after more than three years of investigation, the IAEA is still unable to conclude definitively whether the Iranian program is peaceful or has more sinister ambitions.
The investigation began in February 2003 after it was revealed that Iran had been hiding nuclear work for almost two decades.
"ElBaradei has staked all his reputation and career on working with the Iranians," a Western diplomat said of the IAEA chief’s insistence on peaceful diplomacy to defuse the nuclear crisis.
The diplomat said ElBaradei’s comments showed that he saw Iran’s lack of cooperation with IAEA inspectors "as a direct challenge to everything he has been trying to do."
While the IAEA has managed to verify that all declared nuclear material and facilities in Iran are under safeguards, ElBaradei said it lacked reassurance "that there is nothing in Iran that has not been declared to us."
A unique element in the case of the Iran was that the IAEA investigation was unable to start its work on a clean slate, he said.
"We started from a situation where we came to realize that there had been activities for 20 years which we did not know about."