Yet another stone in build-up for action

February 24, 2008


Yet another stone in build-up for action

THE LATEST International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran's nuclear activities does not add anything than to the agency's earlier conclusions that it was not in a position to determine the "full nature of Iran's nuclear programme." Surely, the agency has the resources to detect any suspected nuclear activity in Iran, but it has failed to find any. Hypothetically, the agency's "failure" could be attributed to either the skills of the Iranians to hide whatever they are doing or the absence of anything for the nuclear watchdog to be suspicious. Presumably, the agency has taken the easy way out by saying it was not in a position to arrive at any conclusions. It wants to protect its credibility while leaving the door open for the big powers to decide whatever course of action they want to take against Iran.
There is yet another aspect to the affair. The IAEA, which does not have any independent intelligence capabilities worth mentioning, could not sidestep the "evidence" that the US presented to it to support Washington's argument that Iran does have a clandestine nuclear weaponisation programme. If the agency does make a conclusive statement that its inspectors could not find any sign of Iran having a nuclear weaponisation programme, then it would be contradicting the "evidence" supplied by the US. And that is something the IAEA does not want to do.
But then, Washington is contradicting its own spying agencies, which concluded late last year in a National Intelligence Estimate that Iran had a nuclear weaponisation programme but dropped it in 2003 and that there was no indication that it has revived the programme.
As such, where did Washington come up with "evidence" to support its "case" against Iran? Does it have yet another secret intelligence arm other than the 16 which drew up the National Intelligence Estimate? Is there a "special operation office" in Washington similar to the one that existed in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq and produced fake intelligence reports and doctored others?
It was no coincidece that shortly before the IAEA issued its final report on Iran, the National Council of Resistance on Iran went public public with charges that Iran has recently established a "new command and control centre" at a military site at Mojdeh, a suburb of Tehran, and is actively pursuing "production of nuclear warheads" at a military site at Khojir.
The charges raise the questions whether the Iranian military is producing nuclear warheads in a suburb of Tehran and whether it has established a command and control centre just outside Tehran for its nuke-armed ballistic-missile force.
In simple terms, the charges are difficult to be swallowed even with what were described by the National Council of Resistance on Iran as space-satellite photo-images of the two alleged military sites.
According to knowledgeable sources and seasoned experts, the 'evidence" that the council produced originated with the Israelis, was then supplied to the United States, who provided it to the IAEA, urging the agency to present it to Iran for "explanation."
With the US and Britain having already submitted a draft resolution at the UN Security Council calling for more sanctions against Iran, the IAEA report is yet another stone in the build-up to whatever the big powers are planning to do against Tehran, with Israel applauding from the wings.