PrintJune 26, 2008
IAEA Head Mohamed ElBaradei Admits Failure On Iran
Here's a troubling report from WCBS, reporting on an interview that IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei gave on Al-Arabiya television June 20th: Iran Could Make Nuke In 6 Months. In the interview, ElBaradei is attempting to claim credit for being the only person in the world that is preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, but in doing so inadvertently admits that his attempts to prevent Iran from getting materials from which Iran can build a nuclear device has utterly failed.
First, a little background. In October of last year, Mohamed ElBaradei told Le Monde newspaper the following:
"Supposing that Iran does intend to acquire a nuclear bomb, it would need between another three and eight years to succeed."
Eight months later, here's ElBaradei stating his new outlook and crediting himself as being the only person on Earth in the way of Iran going nuclear:
"If Iran wants to turn to the production of nuclear weapon, it must leave the NPT, expel the IAEA inspectors, and then it would need at least, considering the number of centrifuges and the quantity of uranium Iran has...It would need at least six months to one year," ElBaradei said."Therefore, Iran will not be able to reach the point where we would wake up one morning to an Iran with a nuclear weapon," he said.
The piece of paper that ElBaradei refers to, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is simply a worthless piece of paper to any Islamic country, especially when one takes into account the Islamic principle of Taqiyya. Recognizing that, the astute interviewer asks if ElBaradei meant what he just said - that Iran could have a nuclear weapon in six months:
His interviewer then asked, "If Iran decides today to expel the IAEA from the country, it will need six months to produce [nuclear] weapons?"

The IAEA chief answered, "It would need this period to produce a weapon, and to obtain highly-enriched uranium in sufficient quantities for a single nuclear weapon."
Mohamed ElBaradei's sole job has been to not only prevent the Iranians from enriching uranium, but also to prevent Iran from obtaining the necessary equipment and technology to develop nuclear weapons. Apparently, during the last eight months, he's fallen a little short. In these latest statements, he admits to failing on all counts - even with IAEA inspectors in Iran! If Tehran has gotten this far with the inspectors in their country, why would Iran bother expelling them now? ElBaradei's inspectors offer the Iranians the perfect cover to continue to develop their nuclear weapons program - and it's obvious that Tehran has been doing just that.
The IAEA chief then goes on to say that if Iran is attacked, he would resign in protest. In light of his own personal and professional failings, just how else does he expect that Iran would be prevented from developing a nuclear weapon? It seems that an attack is the only option left. Tehran has already stated publicly that they're going to continue to enrich uranium, regardless of further sanctions.
Israel will attack Iran if they feel that Tehran is getting too close to a nuclear weapon, just as they attacked Syria's North Korean designed nuclear reactor last year when it was getting close to going online. (In that instance, ElBaradei claimed that he wasn't even aware that Syria was in the nuclear business, let alone actually building a reactor.) As it appears that all diplomatic efforts have failed to dissuade Iran, some sort of an Israeli attack seems more likely than not.
Ironically (and sadly), ElBaradei is more concerned about an Israeli attack than in Iran getting nuclear weapons. But it is the IAEA itself that is riling up Israel at this point, as CBS News Foreign Affairs' Pamela Falk tells us in the article:
"Israel is evidently the most threatened by the last IAEA report, which concluded that there are unanswered questions about Iran's ability to eventually develop nuclear weapons," said Falk, "so it is elBaradei himself who produced the report that is making Israel nervous."
I have a funny feeling that this interview didn't go over too well with the Israelis, either.
