Don’t Bomb Iran

El Baradei yesterday slammed US critics of a new inspection deal with Iran as “back-seat drivers” trying to justify a war with Tehran in the same way they cleared a path for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, says the normally hawkish Washington Times. “I hear war drums that are basically saying that the solution is to bomb Iran. It makes me shudder because some of the rhetoric is a reminder” . Even the more moderate Washington Post editorialised that El Baradei was a “rogue regulator” last week, and he is hitting back at people trying to derail what might the the “last chance” to solve the Iranian issue. As with Iraq, he asks for more time, saying “We have not seen any weaponization of their program, nor have we received any information to that effect - no smoking gun or information from intelligence,” but US ‘experts’ say the UN inspector has not proved that Iran has no secret nuclear sites; an impossible task the same experts said of Iraq inspectors.
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Mohamed El Baradei says war drums beating for Iran like they did in
the run up to the Iraq war (Washington Times)

Article published Sep 8, 2007
Nuke watchdog defends Iran deal
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070908/FO…
September 8, 2007
By David R. Sands - The United Nations’ top nuclear cop yesterday
slammed critics of a new inspection deal with Iran as “back-seat
drivers” trying to justify a war with Tehran in the same way they
cleared a path for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the nuclear watchdog
International Atomic Energy Agency, named no names in a briefing for
reporters at the IAEA’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria. But his harsh
words reflected the depth of suspicion and distrust between the
Egyptian diplomat and critics in the United States, both inside and
outside the Bush administration.
Pleading for time to allow a new Iranian inspection plan to work, Mr.
ElBaradei said, “I hear war drums that are basically saying that the
solution is to bomb Iran. It makes me shudder because some of the
rhetoric is a reminder” of the run-up to the Iraq war.
“There have been back-seat drivers putting in their five cents saying
this is not a good working arrangement,” he said, according to an
account by the Reuters news agency.
“I tell them: Please, leave the driving to us and we will let you know
where we are in November.”
The official U.S. response to the IAEA chief’s comments was measured,
but U.S. officials also made it clear that Iran must do far more than
meet the IAEA’s goals to put to rest questions about its suspect
nuclear programs.
“I would certainly hope that [Mr. ElBaradei's] comments would not
refer to the United States, because they certainly wouldn’t be true,”
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
Mr. Casey and the U.S. Ambassador to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, said
they back the IAEA’s efforts to clear up “historical” questions about
Iran’s secret nuclear programs. But they added that the United States
and its allies still demand that Iran suspend key activities, such as
uranium enrichment, or face new international sanctions.
Mr. Schulte said late last month that the IAEA inspection agreement
with Tehran has “real limitations” because key military and
manufacturing sites inside the Islamic republic would not be covered.
Mr. ElBaradei has U.S. critics outside the Bush administration as
well. A Washington Post editorial this week dubbed him a “rogue
regulator” who is “undermining” the U.S.-led effort to curb Iran’s
nuclear programs.
Yesterday, Mr. ElBaradei said the U.S. press was rushing to discredit
him.
“If you look at some of the American newspapers today, there is a
coordinated, orchestrated campaign to undermine the process, undermine
the agency, undermine me,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
The Bush administration and Mr. ElBaradei had some tense exchanges
before the Iraq war over the extent of dictator Saddam Hussein’s
nuclear weapons programs. The IAEA could not verify U.S. claims of a
major Iraqi nuclear effort, and postwar analyses largely upheld the
U.N. agency’s work.
The United States briefly tried to block Mr. Elbaradei’s reappointment
to the IAEA post in 2005, but found no support from the nearly three
dozen nations that sit on the Vienna agency’s board.
Meeting with a small group of reporters in Vienna yesterday, Mr.
ElBaradei said his inspectors have uncovered little so far to back up
charges Iran has developed a military nuclear capability. Iranian
officials say their program is designed for peaceful energy uses.
“We have not seen any weaponization of their program, nor have we
received any information to that effect - no smoking gun or
information from intelligence,” Mr. ElBaradei said.
Mr. ElBaradei suggested yesterday that critics should give his
inspectors until the end of the year to do their work.
“This is a reasonable time in our view to resolve a number of complex
issues,” he said.
But Jacqueline Shire and David Albright, nuclear specialists at the
private Washington-based Institute for Science and International
Security, said in an Aug. 30 report that the IAEA inspection deal
signed with Iran on Aug. 27 is “limited in scope” in a number of key
areas.
“The IAEA has also not been able to determine whether Iran has
undeclared nuclear facilities,” they wrote. “Iran may be installing
centrifuges at a secret, undeclared plant.”