JEDDAH, 15 June 2005 — The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that Saudi Arabia does not possess any nuclear facilities or fissionable material and does not engage in any prohibited nuclear activities.
“We don’t have any information proving Saudi Arabia has any prohibited nuclear fissionable material,” Okaz daily yesterday quoted IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozedecky as saying. He also said that Saudi Arabia was a leading IAEA member who supported the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Meanwhile, Saudi ambassador to Vienna and its permanent representative to IAEA, Omar Kurdi, said the Kingdom was ready to sign the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP) of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Gwozedecky said the Saudi government’s decision to sign SQP and the safeguards agreement during the current meeting of IAEA governors in Vienna was a significant move. “This again confirms the Kingdom’s commitment to international charters and the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” he told the Arabic daily.
Yesterday, IAEA head Mohamed El-Baradei urged Iran to allow a team of experts to return to a military site called Parchin, which they inspected once but have since been barred from visiting. “I would... ask Iran to support the agency’s efforts to pursue further its investigation of the Lavizan-Shian and Parchin sites,” El-Baradei said, adding that his inspectors wanted to visit “areas of interest” at Parchin.
Parchin, the leading center of Iran’s munitions industry, and Lavizan are among the sites where the United States suspects Iranian scientists have conducted research related to the development of nuclear weapons. Iran says it has no interest in such arms, only in civilian nuclear technology to generate electricity.
