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Report: Iran Pursuing Military Nuclear Program
Despite efforts to conceal their actions, Iran is working on a military nuclear project. Western diplomats and chief officials in Israel blame the Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed El-Baradei, for failing to release information about the project.
According to the report, the findings contradict claims made by Mohammed El-Baredei, Director General of the IAEA, that Iran is not developing its nuclear capabilities for military purposes. The inspectors submitted the evidence in a special report that was to be annexed to the agency's general reports, which are periodically made public. However, El-Baredie failed to publish the new data.
"Haaretz" quoted Western diplomats and high ranking Israeli officials, who monitor Iran's nuclear activities, as saying that the new information regarding Iran's military nuclear capabilities has been known for several months, and that a classified report was written by the head of the IAEA inspection team. According to the "nuclear watchdogs", the new report was never included in any of the latest general reports released by the agency, and certain details were even censured by senior officials of the IAEA in the organization's Vienna headquarters.
In response, senior officials from the United States, France, Great Britain and Germany have begun exerting pressure on El-Baredie to publish the new facts in the upcoming report, that is due to be released at the organization's general convention next month. A senior Western diplomat told "Haaretz", "We expect the details to appear in the new report and to be made public."
In Israel, the responsibility for monitoring developments of the "censored report" affair falls on Dr. Shaul Horev, Director General of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, and the Foreign Ministry. The matter is being dealt with discreetly and with extreme sensitivity, and Israeli officials refuse to comment or answer questions about what is transpiring. The Prime Minister's office also declined to comment, but none of those who were questioned denied the report.
In the coming days Israel will continue to exert pressure on the IAEA via friendly nations, in hopes that it will release the censored annex. Israel intends to prove that the Iranian effort to develop nuclear weapons has not ceased, contrary to claims that Tehran stopped its nuclear weapon program in 2003
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