Iran’s nuclear capability is a threat that has been hyped…
Mohamed ElBaradei, outgoing chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has called the Iranian threat “hyped,” saying there is no proof the Islamic republic will soon have nuclear weapons.
“In many ways, I think the threat has been hyped,” ElBaradei told the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in an interview released Tuesday.
“Yes, there’s concern about Iran’s future intentions and Iran needs to be more transparent with the IAEA and international community,” he told the Chicago-based magazine. “But the idea that we’ll wake up tomorrow and Iran will have a nuclear weapon is an idea that isn’t supported by the facts as we have seen them so far.”
But Iran wants to have a chat about their nuclear capabilities…
Iran has prepared an “updated nuclear proposal” and is ready to talk to world powers, state television quoted the Islamic Republic’s chief nuclear negotiator as saying on Tuesday.
The announcement was made a day before six world powers were expected to hold high-level talks in Germany on what to do about Iran’s contentious nuclear program. The West suspects the Islamic state is seeking to build bombs. Iran denies the charge.
“Iran has prepared an updated nuclear proposal and is ready to resume negotiations with world powers,” al-Alam, Iran’s Arabic-language satellite channel, quoted chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili as saying.
The official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying Iran was ready to use its “capacities to remove common concerns on the international scene.”
Such language may cause suspicion in Western capitals that Iran’s proposal, like others before, fails to specifically address their concerns about its nuclear ambitions and is a ruse to buy time and avert the threat of more punitive measures.
Ya gotta love it when semi-conflicting headlines hit the wires at the same time…