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LONDON: Iran must provide key details on its nuclear
program by late November or its unwillingness to work with the
international community will “backfire,” the UN’s nuclear
chief said in an interview published Wednesday.
Speaking to the Financial Times
from Vienna, Mohamed ElBaradei said that the two key issues that
required clarification before he delivered a report to the governing
body of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) next month had
to do with Iran’s research capabilities and its nuclear
weaponization capacity.
“I’ve told the Iranians:
‘This is your litmus test. You committed yourself to come clean.
If you don’t, nobody will be able to come to your support,’”
the IAEA director said, referring to a timetable agreed between Iran
and the IAEA last month for it to answer outstanding questions about
its nuclear program.
ElBaradei added that if Iran
failed to adhere to the timetable, which requires that he present
the report on November 22, it would “backfire in their face.”
He said that the two major issues
that needed to be resolved were Iran’s research and development
capabilities regarding enrichment, and its capacity to weaponize
nuclear materials.
“I would hope that by November
we would have resolved these two issues but I can’t say how far we
will. . . . The key is to show that Iran is acting with us in good
faith, with good intentions,” he told the business daily.
ElBaradei also defended the deal
his agency struck with Iran for the timetable, saying he had not
gone beyond his brief, despite reportedly infuriating several major
Western powers.
“I was frankly very surprised
and concerned that most of the media was hoodwinked into repeating a
myth that this was something we had done on our own—some kind of
‘do it yourself diplomacy.’”
The Security Council has already
passed two resolutions imposing sanctions against Tehran to punish
its defiant refusal to heed ultimatums to suspend sensitive uranium
enrichment activities. 
--AFP
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