Jerusalem, August 20: Tel Aviv has launched a verbal attack on the United Nations, accusing its nuclear watchdog of holding back evidence that could be used against Iran.
In a Wednesday report, the Israeli Haaretz daily cited unnamed officials alleging that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was refusing to publish data, which they claim is proof to Iran’s intention to militarize its nuclear program.
The anonymous officials claim that the information, which has been obtained in recent months, was presented to the IAEA by its own inspectors in a classified annex.
The Israeli paper reported that the annex, which has allegedly been signed by the team’s most high-ranking inspector, was not included in the final report.
It also said that senior officials in Washington, London, Paris and Berlin, have recently pressured the outgoing IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei to release the information.
Israel, one of only three regimes that still refuse to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has often attacked ElBaradei and demanded his dismissal for what it calls being soft on Iran.
With the help of its influential Western allies, Tel Aviv, which is widely considered to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear-armed regime, has alleged that Iran is a threat, claiming that it is pursuing atomic weapons.
Meanwhile, Iran has gone further than its legal obligations to prove its assertions that the nuclear work it is conducting is purely civilian.
ElBaradei, who is reaching the end of his term at the watchdog, has repeatedly asserted in his periodical reports that IAEA inspectors stationed at Iran’s nuclear sites have found no evidence suggesting that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons.
This is while Iran, itself, is critical of the UN structure. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has on many occasions said that the discriminatory advantages that military powers have reserved for themselves at the Security Council must change.
Tehran also believes that the IAEA has fallen short of its responsibility, especially in compelling nuclear-armed regimes to dismantle all their atomic stockpiles.
It also says that the IEA has failed to carry out its stated responsibility of helping poorer states gain nuclear technology under pressure from powers that want to stay in control of the global nuclear fuel market when fossil fuels run out.
According to NPT regulations, all countries have the right to conduct their own uranium enrichment for civilian purposes under the IAEA supervision.
—–Agencies