IAEA chief: Iran's nuclear program special case

[June 07, 2010]  VIENNA (AP) -- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency singled out Iran on Monday as a "special case" for his monitoring teams because of suspicions it might be hiding experimental nuclear weapons programs.

He also faulted both Iran and Syria -- also suspected of hiding nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons -- for holding back on cooperation with his agency, the U.N. nuclear monitor.

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano's opening comments Monday at the start of the agency's 35-nation board meeting set the focus for much of the gathering, with both Iran and Syria key agenda items.

Iran is stonewalling IAEA attempts to follow up on intelligence from the U.S. and other nations that suggests Tehran has hidden nuclear weapons experiments from the world. A fourth set of U.N. Security Council sanctions may be passed in the next few days to punish its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, which Iran says it wants to develop as a nuclear fuel source, but which can also be used to make nuclear warheads.

Syria is refusing IAEA requests for visits to a desert site bombed in 2007 by Israel warplanes that the U.S. says was a nearly completed reactor meant to produce plutonium as well as to other areas that agency suspects may be linked to the targeted structure.

"Iran is a special case because, among other things, of the existence of issues related to the possible military dimensions to its nuclear program," Amano told the closed meetings in comments made available to reporters. "Iran has not provided the necessary cooperation to permit the agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."

As for Syria, it "has not cooperated with the agency since June 2008 in connection with the unresolved issues related to the Dair Alzour site and some other locations," he said, referring to the facility targeted by the Israelis. "As a consequence, the agency has not been able to make progress towards resolving the outstanding issues related to those sites."

The two nations have for years taken up prime time at IAEA board meetings. But that attention may be blunted at this meeting by an other agenda item -- this one critical of Israel, which is universally assumed to have nuclear arms but has never confirmed that status.

The item, listed as "Israeli nuclear capabilities," marks the first time in 19 years that the board has been asked to formally discuss the issue.

Elevating Israel to the same status on the Iran and Syria on the board's agenda in some ways detracts from Western attempts to keep the heat on Tehran and Damascus and could split the board even further -- developing nations at board meetings are generally supportive of Iran and Syria and hostile to Israel.

Inclusion of the item appeared to be the result of a push by the 18-nation Arab group of IAEA member nations, which last year successfully lobbied another agency meeting -- its annual conference -- to pass a resolution directly criticizing Israel and its atomic program.

Unlike the board, the conference cannot make policy. Still, the result was a setback not only for Israel but also for Washington and other backers of the Jewish state, which had lobbied for 18 years of past practice -- debate on the issue without a vote.

The latest pressure is putting the Jewish state in an uncomfortable position. It wants the international community to take stern action to prevent Iran from getting atomic weapons but at the same time brushes off calls to come clean about its own nuclear capabilities.

It also gives critics of Israel a platform to slam it for its attack last week on ships trying break the Gaza blockade that left nine ship members dead.

Criticizing inclusion of the agenda item, Glyn Davies, the chief U.S. delegate to the IAEA, suggested it was better suited to the IAEA general conference because Israel has not violated commitments it has with the agency. He was alluding to the fact that the Jewish state has never signed the Nonproliferation Treaty.

[Associated Press; By GEORGE JAHN]

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