Directly related to the previous post about attacking Iran, the UN International Atomic Energy Agency is claiming that a report on Iran recently completed by US House of Representatives committee is “dishonest” about Iran’s intent to develop nuclear weapons.
The dispute centers around the report’s claim that Iran is making weapons-grade uranium at an enrichment site, when the IAEA says that Iran has made only small amounts of the material–far less than what is required to build weapons.
Another dispute surrounds the removal of an IAEA inspector at IAEA leader Mohamed ElBaradei’s request, which the report says was because that inspector believed Iran wanted to create weapons. In fact, says the IAEA, Tehran asked for the removal and was entitled to ask for a replacement under IAEA rules.
The House committee’s response on the enrichment site issue was that the report said that Iran was creating the material, not that it had created enough for weapons use.
This dispute is reminiscent of the debate that occurred before the Iraq invasion. I really hope we learned our lesson then. Before any military decisions are made about Iran we absolutely must know the complete truth about exactly what Iran has been doing. We should exert great pressure to ensure that inspections continue, and that they not be impeded by a trigger-happy Chief Executive in the way that led to the disastrous search for non-existent WMD’s in Iraq.
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