UN-ElBaradei: Iran to Have Nuclear Weapon in ONE YEAR [Death to Iran! Bomb Iran NOW!]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/14/92513.shtml?s=os

ElBaradei Urges Iran to Stop Enrichment

NewsMax.com Wires Thursday, June 14, 2007

VIENNA -- The chief U.N. nuclear monitor urged Iran on Thursday to stop

expanding uranium enrichment to ease a standoff with world powers, who have

demanded Tehran shut down the programme entirely.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said

the festering stalemate between Iran and the U.N. Security Council was

leading to confrontation but that resorting to war on Tehran would "be an

act of madness".

Speaking at the end of an IAEA policymaking meeting that made no headway on

the Iran crisis, he also said Iran continued to perfect enrichment

technology but there was no proof it has overcome all technical obstacles,

as Tehran has proclaimed.

Iran says it aims to refine uranium only to the low level required for

civilian energy, not the high level suitable for bombs. But Tehran's past

concealment of activity from inspectors and stonewalling of IAEA inquiries

have stoked suspicions.

Instead of halting enrichment, as the Security Council has demanded, Iran

has rapidly expanded its programme, prompting EU powers to warn on Wednesday

it faced stiffer sanctions in addition to the two rounds the Security

Council has imposed.

"I call on Iran again that at this critical stage (to) impose or adopt a

self-imposed moratorium on its capacity building in the area of

centrifuges," ElBaradei said.

He was referring to Iran's vast Natanz enrichment bunker where it plans

"industrial scale" production of nuclear fuel. "It would be a good

confidence-building measure if Iran would right now have a self-imposed

moratorium, on the level of the number of centrifuges being built," he said.

ElBaradei said the current stalemate could prove disastrous.

"If we go the way we are heading, I can see that we will be heading towards

confrontation," ElBaradei told reporters.

"Even the idea of people talking about using force ... it would be

catastrophic, it would be an act of madness, and it would not solve the

issue," he said.

The United States and Israel, the Islamic Republic's arch-adversaries, have

not ruled out a last-resort military action to crush Iran's nuclear

infrastructure if negotiations backed up by sanctions do not work.

IRAN MAKING ADVANCES

ElBaradei last month angered the United States and European allies by saying

Iran had mastered a basic enrichment programme and they should consider

negotiating to cap it short of industrial level that could lead to atomic

bombs.

The four powers, Russia and China have stuck to the demand for a total

enrichment halt in exchange for a suspension to sanctions and negotiations

to implement trade benefits on offer to Iran. But Tehran has rejected what

it calls attempts to deny its right to a sovereign, civilian nuclear energy

programme.

ElBaradei said Iran was indeed making advances towards an enrichment

industry after years of research-level activity.

"They have 1,700 to 2,000 centrifuges right now," he said, adding that Iran

was on target to have about 3,000 running by the end of July. That would be

enough to yield material for one bomb in a year if operated nonstop.

But he said inspectors had not yet been able to verify whether the

centrifuges were running at optimal speed or whether some might have

crashed, as they have a number of times before.

ElBaradei stressed that current intelligence showed Iran remained "years"

away from the capability to assemble nuclear explosives, assuming it wanted

them, and then repeated earlier assessments of a 3-8 year time frame.

Earlier on Thursday, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA warned it may reconsider

basic cooperation with IAEA inspectors if it was hit with harsher U.N.

sanctions.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Tehran had mastered the means to enrich uranium

and world powers must accept that fact instead of trying to stop the work

through sanctions.