London/Vienna - Iran is mastering nuclear technology and
believes firmly in having the strategic option of a nuclear weapon,
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei
said in a BBC interview Wednesday.
'It is my gut feeling that Iran would like to have the technology
to enable it to have nuclear weapons,' ElBaradei said.
'They want to send a message to their neighbours, to the rest of
the world: Don't mess with us. But the ultimate aim of Iran, as I
understand it, is they want to be recognized as a major power in the
Middle East,' said the IAEA Director General.
Iran's ambassador at the IAEA in Vienna rejected ElBaradei's
comments.
'If you quoted him right, he's absolutely wrong,' Ambassador Ali
Asghar Soltanieh told reporters on the sidelines of an meeting of the
IAEA's governing board. 'We don't have any intention of having a
nuclear weapon at all.'
Such weapons are not part of Iran's defence doctrine, and the
nuclear programme serves only peaceful purposes, the diplomat said.
The United States said at an IAEA meeting in Vienna that Iran's
refusal to fully cooperate with the nuclear agency 'deeply undermines
Iran's assertion that its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful
in nature.'
The US envoy also reminded member countries on the IAEA's
governing board that Iran possesses or is near possessing enough
uranium material to produce one nuclear weapon, if it decided to do
so.
Iran has repeatedly stated that it had no intent to take the
necessary additional technical steps in that direction.
ElBaradei said in his interview that Iran sees its nuclear
programme as a road to power and prestige in the Middle East, and as
an insurance policy against regime change.
He urged western countries to engage with Iran to remove the
incentive for making a bomb.
The US reiterated its commitment to finding a diplomatic solution
in the nuclear row with Tehran, through talks involving also Britain,
France, Germany, Russia and China.
Iran has so far not taken up this standing offer. Tehran has
ignored Security Council resolutions calling for a halt of the
enrichment programme and answering outstanding questions about
possible nuclear-weapons-related studies in the past. It has also not
allowed more thorough IAEA inspections.
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