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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| IAEA revises Iran Report |
| 2004-06-18 |
| excerpted from State Department Daily Press Briefing. I read the statement as a revision of an inaccurate IAEA statement that the Iranians are guilty as hell to a more accurate statement that the Iranians are guilty as hell in a slightly different way. QUESTION: A couple of quick ones. Do you have -- as you, I’m sure are aware, the IAEA today said that it had wrongly accused Iran of failing to disclose certain information about its potential nuclear weapons-related technology imports, do you have any comment on the fact that they apparently inaccurately said that Iran hadn’t disclosed (inaudible). Do you feel this, in any way, your case or belief that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program and has failed to come clean on that? MR. BOUCHER: No, in fact, oddly enough, it only points out more how hollow Iran’s denials and statements have been because what the IEA said is, in their report, they said that Iran had not told them about the magnets, but they then found out later that they had heard about it in -- I guess there was -- Iran produced a tape recording of an Iranian private citizen telling an IAEA inspector orally in January that he did import P2 magnets. So the Director General of the IAEA has correctly and responsibly revised one part of one sentence of the June 1st report. But we would note that up until May, the official position of the Iranian Government was that it had not imported P2 centrifuge parts and the Director General’s report also indicates not until May that Iran acknowledged, for the first time, details about seeking to procure 4000 magnets with specifications suitable for P2 use. So even though you had an Iranian telling the inspector in January that they had tried to buy magnets, that they had bought P2 magnets, the official position of the Iranian Government, the denials of the Iranian Government continued all the way through May. So, once again, we’re faced with a situation of finding that Iran has, in this case, not only denied what the inspectors knew, but denied that what an Iranian had told the inspectors. We have, you know, repeated indications where in February that they also wrote to the IAEA that only P2 drawings had been received in 1994, without any components of the P2 centrifuge. Again, the Iranians, apparently, already prior to that date, told the IAEA that they had imported these magnets for the P2s. So we’re, once again, left in the situation where we find that Iran has spent months and months and months denying things that were known, months and months trying to pretend that it was not doing things that finally became known and then it finally admitted it. We think it is important that scrutiny of the IAEA continue on Iran, and we are working with other governments at the IAEA to produce a resolution for the board that will say that, that will continue that process. The negotiations on a text in Vienna have continued. We are working with the Europeans who have produced drafts of the text. The board has, I think, recessed now for the day until tomorrow. A resolution text has now been tabled, I understand, on Thursday, and we expect that the board would act on it tomorrow. QUESTION: Did it call for the matter being referred to the UN Security Council? MR. BOUCHER: I think now that it has been tabled, you’ll see the text in Vienna. It calls for Iran to meet its commitments, for Iran to fully disclose the information that it has promised and to stop making excuses or denying things that are true, and it calls on Iran to meet its commitments to others and its requirements under board resolutions. QUESTION: But does it look like they’re going to (inaudible) and just drag this thing out as long as possible and then withdraw from the MPT? MR. BOUCHER: You would have to ask the Iranians. Obviously the rules for proliferation were different in 1994. I agree with the State Department that 1441 proved that the Security Coucil is irrelevant and there is no purpose to bringing Iranian non-compliance before the UNSC we can all be annoyed again with its stupidity. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |