ROME, 6 July 2003 — The head of the UN’s nuclear agency said yesterday Iran should sign up to new treaty obligations allowing tougher inspections to make its nuclear power program more transparent.
But Mohamed El Baradei offered Iran an incentive saying if it did so then restrictions on its access to nuclear technology might gradually be lifted. “I think it’s important that they have to take the first step...a “peace offensive” to show they have done everything to demonstrate transparency,” El Baradei said in an interview ahead of his trip to Iran on Wednesday.
Washington accuses the Islamic republic of pursuing a clandestine atomic weapons program, but Iran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity.
El Baradei said his priorities were to get Tehran to declare all aspects of its nuclear program and ink new treaty obligations allowing more intrusive, short-notice inspections.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in Vienna, criticized Iran last month for not complying with accords designed to stop civilian nuclear resources being used for atomic arms.
Although Iran is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has resisted calls to sign the pact’s Additional Protocol, which would allow for the wider inspections asked for by the United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union.
“We would like to have Iran sign the Additional Protocol...an additional authority to be able to do more comprehensive verification,” explained El Baradei, in Rome for a conference on weapons of mass destruction.
“I’m confident, once they do that, then over time the ban or the sanction applied against nuclear technology will be gradually lifted. But to create confidence, it takes time.”
Iran has said the process should be the other way round, with restrictions barring access to technology lifted first. Some countries like the United States have a unilateral embargo on supplying nuclear technology to Iran. There is also the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an informal umbrella body of about 40 countries, which has a voluntary embargo on supplying nuclear parts for civilian programs that could be used for weapons.
But even if Iran does make the first move, Vienna-based diplomats have expressed concerns that Iran might sign the protocol, claiming political credit, but then drag out the process of ratification — citing the fact Washington has also not ratified — and so avoid being legally bound by it. El Baradei said the IAEA was also investigating reports of uranium enrichment sites.
