Click to play videoInternational Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei is concerned over Iran's nuclear plans and blames Tehran for not informing them of their new nuclear plants.
ElBaradei spoke exclusively to CNN-IBN Deputy Foreign Affairs Editor Suhasini Haider in New Delhi.
CNN-IBN: In the last week, the world has seen dramatic revelations from Iran informing you that it has a second secret Uranium enrichment plant at Qom. Should the world be deeply concerned about the threat of a possible Iranian nuclear weapons programme?
Mohamed ElBaradei: The new facility that has been reported to us, unfortunately it has been a setback to the principle of transparency, and to the effort by the international community to build confidence about the Iranian nuclear programme because Iran has been on the wrong side of the law in so far as the IAEA regulation to inform the Agency at an earlier date.
Iran was supposed to inform us on the day it was decided to construct the facility. They have not done that. They are saying that this was meant to be a back-up facility in case we were attacked and so they could not tell us earlier on.
Nonetheless, they have been on the wrong side of the law, you know, in so far as informing the Agency about the construction, and as you have seen it, it has created concern in the international community. I talked to Dr Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran. He said the facility is far from being completed, there are no centrifuges in the facility, there is no nuclear material, it is simply still just ready in term of cables and construction.
But we need to go and impress on him that we need to go and our inspectors need to go as early as possible, to establish the facts, to discuss with them history, characteristics of that facility, and through that, again, provide assurance to the international community, that this facility is meant to be a facility devoted for peaceful purposes.
I think Iran will be well advised, as I have been saying for a while, to take the offer of US President Obama to engage into substantive negotiations without precondition, which is something new on the table, on the basis of mutual respect. There will be a meeting on October 1. I hope that meeting will usher in a comprehensive, meaningful dialogue.
CNN-IBN: Dr ElBaradei, you have been accused by many countries, including Israel, of giving Iran an easy pass in the past. As the head of the world's nuclear watchdog and looking at Iran's continued defiance, if you like, of that world order, do you think you failed to rein in Iran?
Mohamed ElBaradei: I don't think we failed a lot. I think all what the world knows about Iranian nuclear programme is the credit of the Agency in a systematic, methodical work for the last six years. And the idea that we have been soft or hard is absolutely bonkers, because we have been doing as much as we can. We cannot just barge into a facility.
We cannot force Iran to co-operate if they are not ready to co-operate. Recently, [they] have asked the Agency for assistance in getting fuel for its existing research reactor and asked the Agency to see whether we can be of help.
I was quite pleased to see that there is a very large amount of goodwill on the part of the suppliers to provide fuel for Iran for its research reactor in Teheran. The world is keen, is ready to help Iran to make full use of nuclear energy for nuclear purposes. But Iran too needs to do its bit.
CNN-IBN: Do you think that is at all likely? Because on one hand you are saying yourself that you are not able to verify but you would like to help Iran to get fuel for its research reactors?
Mohamed ElBaradei: We are able to verify. We are not able to verify as much as we want because they have not been implementing the so called additional protocol, which gives us more access to more information or to the location. But we have been able to verify all the declared nuclear activities in Iran.
Once a facility has been declared to us... Iran came to us a bit late but did declare to us. And of course, we will then go and make sure that we have proper verification. But we need the verification to make sure that there are no undeclared activities going on in Iran and that is the missing part that I would like to do.
I would also like, as I have said, to see Iran engaging in a meaningful way with the international community. It is instructive that even as late as yesterday, US President Obama repeated that still the US is ready to engage Iran, is ready to have a diplomatic dialogue with them.
That really gave me a lot of hope, because there is no other way. We have to stare each other in the eye and find a solution whereby we can live together.
CNN-IBN: Do you believe Iran has a nuclear weapons programme?
Mohamed ElBaradei: I do not think, based on what we see, that Iran has an on-going nuclear weapons programme. Whether they have done some weaponisation studies, as was claimed by the US and others, this is one of the issues that are still outstanding. But I have not seen any credible evidence to suggest that Iran has an on-going nuclear programme today. I hope that they are not having one.
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