Toronto Star : UN nuclear chief slams 'hype' on Iran

UN nuclear chief slams 'hype' on Iran

George Jahn | Associated Press | September 17, 2007

VIENNA, Austria – Invoking the war in Iraq, the chief United Nations nuclear inspector criticized talk of attacking Iran as "hype" today, saying the use of force should only be considered as a last resort and only if authorized by the UN Security Council.

"I would not talk about any use of force," said Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an indirect response to French warnings that the world had to be prepared for the possibility of war in the event that Iran obtains atomic weapons.

Saying only the UN Security Council could authorize the use of force, ElBaradei urged the world to remember Iraq before considering any similar action against Iran.

"There are rules on how to use force, and I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 700,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons," he told reporters.

He was alluding to a key U.S. argument for invading Iraq in 2003 without Security Council approval – that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms. Four years later, no such arsenals have been found.

ElBaradei, speaking outside a meeting of his agency, urged both sides to back away from confrontation, in comments addressed both to Iran and the U.S.-led group of countries pressing for new UN sanctions for Iran's refusal to end uranium enrichment.

"We need to be cool," he said, adding: "We need not to hype the issue".

On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that the world should prepare for war if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and said European leaders were considering their own economic sanctions against the Islamic country.

Negotiations and two sets of Security Council sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear power plants as well as material used in atomic weapons.

Iran insists its atomic activities are aimed only at producing energy, but the U.S., its European allies and other world powers suspect Iranian authorities of seeking nuclear weapons.

Kouchner, speaking on RTL radio, said that if "such a bomb is made... We must prepare ourselves for the worst," he said, specifying that could mean a war.

The United States, too has refused to rule out the possibility of force against Iran if it continues to defy Security Council demands on enrichment. Still, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday the U.S. administration is committed, for now, to using diplomatic and economic means to counter the potential nuclear threat from Iran.

"I think that the administration believes at this point that continuing to try and deal with the Iranian threat, the Iranian challenge, through diplomatic and economic means is by far the preferable approach. That's the one we are using," the Pentagon chief said.

On Monday, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon sought to downplay Kouchner's comments, saying "everything must be done to avoid war."

"France's role is to lead the way to a peaceful solution," Fillon said, while at the same time calling for the "the most severe sanctions possible against the Iranian government if it continues" with its disputed nuclear program.

In comments alluding to the U.S. and its Western allies, Iranian Vice-President Reza Aghazadeh again ruled out scrapping Iran's uranium enrichment program, telling delegates Iran would "never give up its inalienable and legal right in benefiting from peaceful nuclear technology."

ElBaradei, architect of a recent pact committing Iran to stop stonewalling his experts and reveal information about past suspicious nuclear work, defended the agreement against criticism it could be used by the country to divert attention from its defiance of the Security Council.

"What we need to do is encourage Iran to work with the agency to clarify the outstanding issues," he said.

Guardian : Drift into war with Iran out of control, says UN

Drift into war with Iran out of control, says UN

· Officials back nuclear inspector's warning
· Tehran denounces French extremism in growing row

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor and Angelique Chrisafis in Paris | The Guardian | September 18, 2007

The UN's chief nuclear weapons inspector yesterday warned against the use of force against Iran, in what UN officials said was an attempt to halt an "out of control" drift to war.

His outspoken remarks, which drew a parallel between Iran and Iraq, appeared to take aim at the US and Britain. They followed comments on Sunday night by the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, who said: "We have to prepare for the worst," adding "the worst is war".

"I would not talk about any use of force," Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna. "There are rules on how to use force, and I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 700,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons."

There has been a string of reports out of Washington that the Bush administration is running out of patience with diplomacy and is intensifying its plans for air strikes as a means of halting Iran's disputed nuclear programme.

UN officials said Mr ElBaradei, an Egyptian diplomat who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2005, was attempting to slow down what seemed to be an accelerating march to war.

"There's a strategic reason for doing these things," one official said. "He really is alarmed. He sees this thing going out of control. The feeling around here is that this looks like the run-up to the Iraq war."

Last month, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, sparked a heated political debate in Paris when he called the Iranian stand-off "the greatest crisis" of current times, saying the world had "a catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran".

Following Mr Kouchner's comments, Tehran yesterday denounced France's stance on the nuclear issue, which has toughened since Mr Sarkozy's election in May. Iran's state-owned news agency IRNA published an editorial accusing Paris of "extremism" and pandering to Washington. "The new occupants of the Elysée want to copy the White House," it said, accusing Mr Sarkozy of taking on "an American skin".

Iran insists on its right to run a comprehensive nuclear programme, including the enrichment of uranium, which it says is intended for peaceful electricity generation.

The US has called a meeting of senior European and Russian officials in Washington on Friday to discuss the deepening crisis over Iran. Britain, the US and France are likely to push for more sanctions over Iranian defiance, while Russia and China are expected to resist, pointing to a deal Mr ElBaradei struck with the Iranian government last month, in which Tehran agreed to answer unresolved questions over its nuclear programme.

The US, Britain, France and Germany complained to Mr ElBaradei that they had not been consulted and that the agreement did not mention the UN Security Council's demand that Iran suspend uranium enrichment while its programme is assessed. In their eyes, the deal gave Tehran a means of stalling new sanctions while continuing to produce nuclear fuel.

France is determined that if the UN is unable to agree on a new round of sanctions against Iran, the European Union should impose its own. Mr Kouchner said leading French companies such as Total and Renault had been urged not to sign new contracts with Iran, and he flew to Moscow to try to persuade Russia to accept a toughening of the embargo.

Meanwhile, the French prime minister, François Fillon, yesterday tried to play down the talk of war, saying that everything must be done to avoid a conflict, but he added that Mr Kouchner was right to stress the danger and seriousness of the Iranian stand-off.

A British official said yesterday that when the French foreign minister had raised the spectre of a conflict, he was "stating the obvious".

"The worst case scenario is a war with Iran, but meanwhile we are seeking a diplomatic solution," the official said.

The French Socialist leader François Hollande yesterday called for an immediate parliamentary debate on Iran, demanding to know if the government had new intelligence on Iran's nuclear intentions.

After talks with Mr Kouchner in Paris yesterday, the Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen said the Netherlands would support EU sanctions if the UN Security Council failed to agree new measures.

Mr ElBaradei, the director general of the IAEA, has been increasingly at odds with Washington and London, who believe he is straying beyond his job description and freelancing as an independent statesman.