• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Elbaradei asks Iran for greater cooperation

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Vienna, Nov 8, IRNA
IAEA-ElBaradei-Iran
Against the backdrop of continuing full-scale Iranian cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog as shown in the recent opening of its sensitive military site in Parchin to IAEA inspectors, IAEA Director-General Mohammed Elbaradei here Monday requested broader transparency and cooperation from Iran in efforts to clear the issue on its nuclear program.

According to an IAEA report in Vienna, ElBaradei, speaking in Washington on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said that "Broader transparency and cooperation on the part of Iran would enable the vienna-based IAEA to solve remaining problems and be assured that Iran's nuclear program is of a peaceful nature, as Tehran claims."
Meanwhile, ElBaradei criticized nuclear powers for their indifference to their commitment to decrease their nuclear arsenals, regretting that "the international community has proceeded very slowly toward a nuclear weapons free world in the post Cold War ear when there is actually no need to stockpile nuclear weapons." "The existence of 27,000 nuclear warheads in the world is a great threat to mankind and nuclear powers' extremely slow progress in complying with their commitment to destroy warheads has disheartened non-nuclear nations," the IAEA chief warned.

"Unfortunately, the IAEA has practically no efficient mechanism at hand to urge these countries to heed their commitments or to control the production level of their nuclear arsenals," ElBaradei further said.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog meanwhile called for the creation of a mechanism that would allow a systematic transfer of nuclear information among IAEA member states.

Saying the IAEA shouldered enormous responsibilities but was operating on a very meager annual budget, Elbaradei called on member states to increase their respective contributions to the agency so as to enable it to effectively discharge its duties.

Mohammed ElBaradei shared with the IAEA the honor of winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

2329/2321/1414