Nuclear security
Published on December 19th, 2014 | by Gareth Porter
Ex-IAEA
Chief Warns on Using Unverified Intel to Pressure Iran
by Gareth Porter
In a critique of the
handling of the Iran file by the International Atomic Energy Agency, former
IAEA Director General Han Blix has called for greater skepticism about the
intelligence documents and reports alleging Iranian nuclear weapons work and
warned that they may be used to put diplomatic pressure on Tehran.
In an interview with
this writer in his Stockholm apartment late last month, Blix, who headed the
IAEA from 1981 to 1997, also criticized the language repeated by the IAEA under
its current director general, Yukiya Amano, suggesting that Iran is still under
suspicion of undeclared nuclear activity.
Blix, who clashed with
US officials when he was head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification
and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq from
2000 to 2003, said he has long been skeptical of intelligence that has been used
to accuse Iraq and Iran of having active nuclear-weapons programs. “I’ve often
said you have as much disinformation as information” on alleged weaponization
efforts in those countries, Blix said.
Referring to the
allegations of past Iranian nuclear weapons research that have been published
in IAEA reports, Blix said, “Something that worries me is that these
accusations that come from foreign intelligence agencies can be utilized by
states to keep Iran under suspicion.”
Such allegations,
according to Blix, “can be employed as a tactic to keep the state in a suspect
light—to keep Iran on the run.” The IAEA, he said, “should be cautious and not
allow itself to be drawn into such a tactic.”
Blix warned that
compromising the independence of the IAEA by pushing it to embrace unverified
intelligence was not in the true interests of those providing the intelligence…
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