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IAEA chief in Iran attack warning
BBC ^ | Thursday, 14 June 2007, 15:07 GMT 16:07 UK | BBC Staff

Posted on 06/14/2007 8:51:30 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

IAEA chief in Iran attack warning

IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei - 14/06/2007

Mr ElBaradei called for a "time out" with Iran

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog has warned that resorting to military action against Iran over its nuclear programme would be "an act of madness".

Mohammed ElBaradei also said Iran was close to reaching large-scale levels of uranium enrichment without providing assurances its programme was peaceful.

Enriched uranium can be used to fuel nuclear reactors but can also be made into nuclear weapons material.

The West has accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.

Mr ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) , said the stalemate between Iran and the UN Security Council was leading to confrontation.

He said any use of force to shut down Iran's nuclear programme "would be catastrophic, it would be an act of madness, and it would not solve the issue".

'Freeze for peace'

The United States and Israel have not ruled out the possibility of using military force against Iran if it does not scrap its uranium-enrichment programme.

But the US favours a diplomatic track, with what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called "disincentives for Iran to continue its activities".

Mr ElBaradei called on Iran to freeze the expansion of its programme, saying the country was close to running 3,000 uranium-enrichment centrifuges.

IAEA officials say 3,000 centrifuges is the point of no return in an industrial programme.

Iran's Natanz nuclear site - file photo
The uranium enrichment facility at Natanz

Iran has said it hopes to install tens of thousands of centrifuges for industrial-scale enrichment at its Natanz site.

"On the one hand Iran is building the capacity and knowledge with regards to sensitive technology," Mr ElBaradei said.

"On the other hand the agency is unable to provide the assurance that this is a peaceful programme.

"It would be good if Iran today would stop building additional centrifuges and installing [them] in Natanz."

That could allow a "time-out or freeze for peace", he said.

Mr ElBaradei was speaking at a meeting of the agency's 35-nation board.

The Iranian envoy to the meeting repeated Tehran's position that it would not suspend uranium enrichment.

The UN Security Council has twice imposed rounds of sanctions on Iran for not suspending enrichment.

Mr ElBaradei said his inspectors had been unable to verify whether the centrifuges at Natanz were running at 100% efficiency or whether some might have crashed, as has happened before.

He repeated his estimate that Iran was three to eight years away from building a nuclear weapon, if that is what it was trying to do.



TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iaea; iran; islam; muhammadsminions; nukes; waronislamism
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1 posted on 06/14/2007 8:51:32 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

And Mohammed would never lie, right ?


2 posted on 06/14/2007 8:54:41 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Earlier warning:

IAEA chief says attack on Iran would be catastrophe

Mohammed ElBaradei is doing a Good Job of allowing Iran to continue their progress in getting Nukes.

3 posted on 06/14/2007 8:54:44 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

They are not doing what the world says to do so, leave them alone!

I like Newt’s idea. A single bombing run on the refinery, or submarine cruise missile strike.

If they want to then move arms, nukes, etc around, they can walk them.


4 posted on 06/14/2007 8:55:56 AM PDT by edcoil (Reality doesn't say much - doesn't need too)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

in.other..news...

Iran..got..busted..trying..to..buy..black..market..enriched...


5 posted on 06/14/2007 8:55:57 AM PDT by himno hero
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

And allowing the mullahs to have nuclear weapons would be a sane policy?


6 posted on 06/14/2007 8:56:07 AM PDT by denydenydeny (Expel the priest and you don't inaugurate the age of reason, you get the witch doctor--Paul Johnson)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
"an act of madness"

WRONG, Mr. IAEA, the real act of madness is that we continue to allow UN, EU, and IAEA bloatocrats like YOU to run this show. Since it has been obvious for a very long time that you are nothing but a stall tactic for the world to pretend something is being done while Iran continues to move aggressively toward nuclear weapons.
7 posted on 06/14/2007 8:56:31 AM PDT by Enchante (Reid and Pelosi Defeatocrats: Surrender Now - Peace for Our Time!!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Time for the UN to go from passing a resolution to passing a strongly worded resolution. That otta do it!


8 posted on 06/14/2007 8:57:07 AM PDT by black_diamond
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

No, we’re not mad. We’re human beings. It’s the way we are.


9 posted on 06/14/2007 8:58:42 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the Treaty)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

He’s not from the Religion of Pieces is he?


10 posted on 06/14/2007 8:59:17 AM PDT by conservativecorner
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Iran will get their butt well and thoroughly kicked, not because they have an illicit and forbidden uranium enrichment program designed exclusively to build nuclear weapons, but because they have done something else, of such egregious and indisputably bad nature, such as funding a war in a neighboring nation, or actually taking part in an assault, that the world has to respond.

And in responding, if the uranium enrichment complex is taken out, well, that would just be ‘collateral damage’.


11 posted on 06/14/2007 9:00:42 AM PDT by alloysteel (Choose carefully the hill you would die upon. For if you win, the view is magnificent.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
MoHamHead needs to stuff it.

He has about as much credibility on nuclear proliferation, as Putin does when he goes off about preserving regional stability (as he builds Iranian nuke plants, takes over media outlets, blackmails nations using recently nationalized state energy companies, and sends KGB buddies all over the world to poison people with radioactive substances, because they are writing a book or talking trash)

ElBaradi should NEVER have been allowed to retain his post, he has done everything in his power to make the situation worse, to the point where I don't even think its incompetence. I question whos side he is actually on... no joke.

12 posted on 06/14/2007 9:02:30 AM PDT by FreedomNeocon (Success is not final; Failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts -- Churchill)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

So, why does the UN have a muslim at the head of their nuclear team?


13 posted on 06/14/2007 9:02:44 AM PDT by aShepard (Oh little Mohammad, Couchy, Couchy Coo; your momma is so proud, you'll be the cutest suicide bomber)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
He said any use of force to shut down Iran's nuclear programme "would be catastrophic, it would be an act of madness, and it would not solve the issue".

It would solve the issue pretty darned quickly.

14 posted on 06/14/2007 9:05:12 AM PDT by mak5
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To: aShepard
Why does the US help pay this guy’s salary ?
15 posted on 06/14/2007 9:11:48 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
This is the same jackass who helped Saddam shuffle the deck to ensure his programs would never be officially discovered by his flim flam U.N. "inspectors". Zero credibility...except as an enabler of terrorists with nuclear weapons aspirations.
16 posted on 06/14/2007 9:16:05 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Traderrob sads allowing Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon is “an act of madness”


17 posted on 06/14/2007 9:23:21 AM PDT by traderrob6
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
"On the other hand the agency is unable to provide the assurance that this is a peaceful programme.

They don't listen to much of the rhetoric coming from "Imanutjob" do they.

Peace is the most overused word within the rhetoric of "Imanutjob". /s

18 posted on 06/14/2007 9:25:41 AM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

time to call for this arab apologists resignation.


19 posted on 06/14/2007 9:26:27 AM PDT by SCHROLL
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To: Myrddin

Yes the world has gone insane. Right is wrong and wrong is right. This guy is satan in a mask. WHY are paying to support these people at the United Nations. It makes me sad enough to cry. I just don’t understand the madness.

This is a slow motion train wreck.


20 posted on 06/14/2007 9:26:28 AM PDT by silentknight
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