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World Jewish News
Israel: World can't trust UN to monitor Iran nukes
07.06.2009
A new report on Iran by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog shows that the global body cannot be trusted to monitor the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
"These findings demonstrate that the international community, no more than Israel, cannot place its trust in IAEA monitoring in Iran," the ministry said in a statement.
The International Atomic Energy Agency report said Friday that Iran is continuing to expand its uranium enrichment, despite three sets of prohibitive UN Security Council sanctions.
The watchdog reported that Iran had increased its rate of production of low-enriched uranium, boosting its stockpile by 500 kg to 1,339 kg in the past six months.
Stating that the report showed the agency's inability to carry out full and effective monitoring due to Iran's lack of cooperation, the foreign ministry urged the world to take concete steps to thwart the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions.
"What is needed from the international community is immediate and determined action to ensure that Iran will not be able to produce nuclear weapons," the statement said.
"The weakness currently displayed by the international community allows a country like North Korea to pursue a policy of defiance, and Iran is an attentive student of this policy."
A separate IAEA report said Friday that the agency has discovered traces of processed uranium at a second site in Syria.
The IAEA has been examining U.S. intelligence reports that Syria had almost built a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor meant to yield weapons-grade plutonium before Israel bombed it to rubble in 2007.
On Sunday, the ministry said the report detailed many "suspicious findings," and criticized Syria's reluctance to let the watchdog visit the various suspected nuclear sites.
"This situation reinforces suspicions that Syria is trying to blur evidence of secret nuclear activity that took place at Dir a-Zur in eastern Syria," the statement said. "The Agency should condemn Syria for hiding the facts pertaining to this activity."
Источник: Haaretz
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