IAEA Chief Leaves Iran Without Deal on Nuclear Freeze

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei left Iran last night without persuading Tehran to stop uranium enrichment, the New York Times reported (see GSN, April 13).

Diplomats in Europe also said that Iran appears ready to double the size of its production facilities in the coming weeks.

ElBaradei met with Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Iranian Atomic Organization, and Ali Larijani, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator. According to a diplomat familiar with the meeting, ElBaradei told them, “you have achieved your goal, and this would be a good time to pause, and allow negotiations to restart.”

“There wasn't a rejection of this, or an embrace of this. They are very aware that he will be writing a report two weeks from now” to the U.N. Security Council, the diplomat added (Fathi/Sanger, New York Times, April 14).

ElBaradei said that Larijani had recommitted “to provide clarity to outstanding issues before I write my report to the (International Atomic Energy Agency) board by the end of this month.”

He said the time was “ripe” for a political solution to the crisis, the Associated Press reported. Larijani, however, reaffirmed Iran’s stance that it would not again halt enrichment of uranium. “Such proposals are not very important ones,” he told reporters while standing alongside ElBaradei.

ElBaradei said he is unsure as to the extent of the nuclear program, according to AP.

“We have not seen diversion of nuclear material for weapons purposes, but the picture is still hazy and not very clear,” he said.

He added that “lots of activities went unreported” over the last 20 years of Iran’s nuclear program (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press I/Houston Chronicle, April 14).

Intelligence agencies in the United States continue to believe that it would take Iran years to prepare sufficient amounts of enriched uranium for a bomb, USA Today reported today.

“Our timeline hasn't changed,” said Thomas Fingar, chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

Gen. Michael Hayden, the No. 2 U.S. intelligence official, said “we believe that Iran is intent on developing a nuclear weapon.”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan added that President George W. Bush was skeptical about the situation being resolved peacefully “give the regime’s history.”

National Counterproliferation Center chief Kenneth Brill said that Iran’s claims must be separated from its actual capabilities.

“An announcement is one thing,” he said, referring to Iran’s stated plans to build 3,000 centrifuges as the first step in a 54,000-centrifuge cascade.

“It will take several years to build that many centrifuges,” Brill said (John Diamond, USA Today, April 14).

Chinese, European Union, Russian and U.S. officials are expected to meet Tuesday in Moscow for further talks on the nuclear standoff, AP reported.

China announced that Cui Tiankai, assistant to Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, would visit Iran and Russia over the next four days. Russia and China have opposed U.S. efforts to impose sanctions against Tehran.

The U.S. Embassy in Russia said Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns would be in Russia on Monday to meet with the Group of Eight political directors (Associated Press II/New York Times, April 14).

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday the United States “would look at the full range of options” at the Security Council’s disposal in deciding how to deal with Iran, the Associated Press reported.

There will “have to be some consequence” for Iran’s actions, she said after meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay.

“There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community despite the fact that the international community very clearly said stop,” Rice added (Katherine Shrader, Associated Press III/Ohmy News, April 14).

MacKay, for the first time, outlined Canada’s stance on how to deal with Iran, according to a report carried in the Ottawa Citizen.

“I believe Canada is in the position that we do support the international need to respond in one voice, the need to demonstrate to Iran that we very clearly want them to comply on pain of sanctions if sanctions are necessary,” he said.

However, sanctions should only follow a series of “progressive responses” in the next few months.

“I don't think we want to take any drastic steps that would destabilize the very volatile situation right now,” he said. “We do believe it is necessary to start weighing all of these options in very short order” (Peter Morton, Financial Post; Steven Edwards, CanWest News Service/Ottawa Citizen, April 14).