IAEA Cuts Aid to Iran

The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors formalized suspensions in technical aid initiated by a UN Security Council resolution adopted Dec. 23.

Out of 55 national and regional projects by the IAEA that provide technical aid to Iran, 10 have been suspended, while another 12 may only proceed in part after "case-by-case screening by the (IAEA) Secretariat."

A total of 33 projects listed in a Feb. 9 report by IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei will continue.

"The reduction in aid was adopted by consensus," an agency spokesman said.

The Security Council resolution imposed sanctions on Iran for continuing to enrich uranium, which makes nuclear reactor fuel but also atom bomb material, and called for IAEA aid to Iran to be slashed, although the cuts can be rolled back if Iran complies with the resolution.

Only two other countries in the IAEA's 50-year history have been stripped of their nuclear aid over concerns about possible attempts to make bombs -- North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The United States has accused Iran of carrying out research to build a nuclear bomb.

A peaceful effort?

IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei said Monday his agency is still unable to verify that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons, in a report to this week's meeting of the IAEA's governing board about Iran's defiance of UN demands.

Iran says its program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity and Iran's ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said the IAEA aid cuts would not affect its uranium enrichment work.

"None of these projects are related to the enrichment program," Soltanieh told reporters.

"The enrichment program will continue as planned under IAEA safeguards. We will neither stop our nuclear activities, enrichment, nor will we stop our work with the IAEA and we will continue this trend and policy," he said.

Developing nations are concerned that politically motivated action could set a precedent that could hurt their aid projects. But they backed the cuts on the recommendation of IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei, diplomats said.

A sensitive area

German ambassador Peter Gottwald, speaking for the European Union, told the board Wednesday that nations clearly have a right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

But he said "it is the European Union's understanding that no assistance shall be provided to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the proliferation-sensitive areas of enrichment related, reprocessing or heavy water related activities or the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems," according to a copy of his speech.

Gottwald recalled the UN resolution's stipulation that aid is only to be given for food, agricultural, medical, safety or other humanitarian purposes.

In November last year, the IAEA had already rejected Tehran's request for technical help in building a heavy-water reactor in Arak that the West fears could provide plutonium, also a possible nuclear weapons material.

Examples from an IAEA report show approval of a project to help Iran "prepare therapeutic sources . . . and radiopharmaceuticals for cancer treatment," saying this was "entirely for medical purposes."

But the agency rejected a project "to strengthen ... capabilities ... for provision of safe and reliable nuclear power generation capacities," saying this was outside what is allowed in

the UN resolution.

A thorn in the West's eye

There was no question, however, of blocking IAEA aid to the construction of Iran's first nuclear reactor in Bushehr, for which Russia has a billion-dollar contract, as the UN resolution said this project was untouchable.

The IAEA board also debated Israel's nuclear program, as the Arab League has expressed "deep concern and great disquiet" over Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's comments in December that seemed to confirm that Israel has nuclear weapons.

Cuban ambassador Norma Estenoz, speaking for the Non-Aligned Movement, said NAM states on the board reiterated their "support for the establishment in the Middle East of a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction."

Soltanieh spoke against Israel having nuclear weapons as "a uniquely grave threat" to world peace.

Israel is believed to have some 200 atom bombs but has a policy of neither confirming nor denying this.