http://www.tehrantimes.com/politics/108020-80-of-un-nuclear-agencys-omes-from-us-allies-iaea-officials
In Print: Sunday 26 May 2013
80% of IAEA’s intelligence comes from U.S., allies, officials say
TEHRAN – The UN nuclear agency responsible for probing Iran’s nuclear
program depends on the United States and its allies for most of its
intelligence, AP reported on Friday.
Much of the world looks at U.S. intelligence on weapons development with
a suspicious eye, given American claims a decade ago that Iraq had developed
weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. used those claims to justify a war; Iraq,
it turned out, had no such weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency insists that it is objective in
evaluating Iran’s nuclear program and that its information comes from a wide
range of sources and is carefully vetted. But about 80 percent of the
intelligence comes from the United States and its allies, the AP has been told.
Two IAEA officials, who gave the 80 percent figure, told the AP that the
agency has been forced to rely more and more on information from Iran’s
harshest critics, the U.S., Israel, Britain, France, and Germany.
Their evaluation appeared to be the first in percentage terms. The
officials demanded anonymity because they are not authorized to release
classified information.
France and Germany refrained from joining the Iraq invasion, insisting
U.S. intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s purported weapons program was
inconclusive.
Intelligence services of other nations, such as Pakistan, China, or
Russia, also collect information on Iran. But they are compromised by the fact
that their governments or individuals provided the equipment or knowledge in
the past that allowed Iran to develop its nuclear program.
Today, they are reluctant to pass on what they know to the agency for
political reasons — they want to be viewed as above the fray. They also view
the IAEA more as technical organization and less as the UN’s nonproliferation
watchdog, a role the agency has increasingly assumed with its Iran probe.
That leaves the U.S. and its allies as the IAEA’s main intelligence
sources.
Critics invoke the Iraq fiasco to warn that the information on Iran
provided by Tehran’s adversaries may be at best inaccurate and at worst spin,
meant to pave the way for possible attack.
“Memories of the failure and tragic mistakes in Iraq are not taken
sufficiently seriously,” Hans Blix, a former IAEA chief, told reporters in
Dubai in March.
“There is no evidence right now that suggests that Iran is producing
nuclear weapons,” said Blix, who headed the team that combed Iraq in the vain
search for weapons of mass destruction.
Asked about the information on which the accusations against Iran are
based, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief delegate to the IAEA, urged the world
to pay heed to “lessons learned from Iraq” in comments to the AP.
Nevertheless, public support for Iran remains strong, particularly among
the 120 countries that call themselves nonaligned. Many are receptive to
Iranian arguments that Western pressure on Tehran is a tactic to keep lucrative
nuclear technology out of their hands.
In Tehran last year, nonaligned countries directly challenged the
Security Council’s position on Iran’s nuclear enrichment, backing the Iranian
insistence that the program is peaceful.
Russia’s Interfax news agency last year quoted Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying Moscow sees “no signs that there is a
military dimension to Iran’s nuclear program.”
Even some experts who are skeptical of Iran question the IAEA’s heavy
reliance on limited sources of information.
Robert Kelley, a former senior IAEA official, describes agency claims of
continued Iranian weapons work as “sketchy.”
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