Iran should freeze all
its uranium enrichment-related activities by a Nov 25
meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei,
said on Friday.
But ElBaradei said he was
hopeful Iran would comply by then, and even if it did
not the matter would not automatically be referred to
the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
“That is the deadline
where the board expects Iran to be in compliance with
its requests,” he told a news conference in Tokyo,
referring to the meeting of the IAEA’s board of
governors.
ElBaradei said it would
be up to board members to decide whether to send the case
to the UN Security Council if Iran did not suspend uranium
enrichment-related activities by the deadline.
“That is something
which comes within the political prerogative of the member
states.”
Earlier on Friday, ElBaradei
said his agency had not detected any signs that Iran was
using its nuclear programme to make weapons, but that
he was still concerned. “Our job is to verify that
the assurances are reflected on the ground,” he
said after giving a speech.
The IAEA chief said the
agency was making good progress in monitoring Iran’s
nuclear activities. But he said it was too early to say
that concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme had
been cleared completely.
“We have not completed
our job to be able to say that no undeclared activities
exist in Iran,” he said. Iran has said it will not
yield to foreign pressure aimed at stopping what it says
is a peaceful energy programme, but which Washington says
is a covert scheme aimed at building bombs.
The IAEA chief in the speech
urged an eventual total ban on nuclear weapons which should
one day be “perceived like genocide”.
He urged existing nuclear
powers to demonstrate their leadership on non-proliferation.
“If the weapons states
would like to have more authority to be able to push for
non-proliferation, they have to show themselves that they
are taking very seriously their commitment under the non-proliferation
treaty,” he said. “You cannot continue to
have a cigarette dangling from your mouth and ask everybody
else not to smoke.”
ElBaradei said the world
needed an alternative system that does not depend on nuclear
weapons, with collective security rooted in the UN Security
Council.
But he acknowledged the
UN system has also had problems.
“Collective security
has not been working very well (under the UN system) for
a variety of reasons,” he said. He said the United
Nations had insufficient resources, with the Security
Council lacking troops.
“The Security Council
has not been very effective in dealing with preventive
diplomacy or even enforcement measures,” he said,
noting that sanctions on Iraq had added misery to its
people.
The international community
needs to think of “smart sanctions that can target
those who are in power and not the helpless people”,
he said.
