United Nations: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammed ElBaradei has asked Iran to respond swiftly to the offer made by the US, France and Russia to process it's enriched uranium to fuel abroad.
"This is a unique and fleeting opportunity to reverse course from confrontation to cooperation and should, therefore, not be missed," he said yesterday at the UN General
Assembly.
In his last address before stepping down as the chief of the IAEA, ElBaradei asked the international community to stick to the path of multilateral dialogue and not to follow the
road of unilateral action, which had led to a "senseless tragedy" in Iraq.
"We must engage those with whom we have differences in dialogue rather than seeking to isolate them," he said. "We must act within the framework of international institutions -in this case, the IAEA and the Security Council - and empower them, rather than bypass them through unilateral action."
ElBaradei regretted that the Iraq war happened on his watch, which was done on "false pretext".
"I will always lament the fact that the tragic war was launched in Iraq that has cost the lives of thousands of innocent civilians," he said, highlighting that the agency had
found no evidence that Iraq had revived its nuclear weapons programme or any other weapons of mass destruction.
"It gives me no consolation that the agencies findings were subsequently vindicated," ElBaradei said.
On North Korea, the nuclear chief pointed out that in sixteen years since the IAEA had reported the matter to the UN, the recluse nation had moved from having undeclared
plutonium to acquiring nuclear programmes.
"The on-again, off-again nature of the dialogue between the DPRK and the international community has stymied the resolution of this issue, which is a glaring example of the
fragility and shortcomings of the non-proliferation regime," he added.
According to him, the two important lessons drawn from North Korea and Iraq was to assess the veracity of intelligence information and remain committed to diplomacy even if its takes a long time.
Speaking on nuclear non-proliferation, ElBaradei welcomed US President Barack Obama's step to engage with Russia on serious disarmament negotiations between the two largest nuclear weapon states.
On the downside, he noted that were more than 200 cases of illicit trafficking in nuclear materials last year, which may be "only the tip of the iceberg."
Expressing optimism that the world would act against the growing risk of nuclear terrorism, he said, "I do not expect to see a world free from nuclear weapons in my lifetime, but I am increasingly hopeful that my children may live in such a world."
The IAEA chief criticised the global community for not paying sufficient attention to the organisation's development side.
"The development side of our mandate remains chronically under-funded," he said.
Presently, 27 out of the 53 countries in Africa have no operating radio therapy services to treat the growing threat cancer and in other parts of the continent there is one radio
therapy machine for 70 million people.
"I urge donor states to recognise the link between security and development without development there can be no security….the reverse is also true," the nuclear chief noted.
ElBaradei took the reigns of the nuclear agency in 1997, and will be succeeded by Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano this December. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the IAEA in 2005.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, November 03, 2009, 09:53