No 'credible evidence' of nuclear-weapons program in Iran: Gary Sick

London, Feb 21, IRNA - A former US national security official says the International Atomic Energy Agency has found no ?credible evidence? of a nuclear-weapons program in Iran.

Gary Sick, from the University of Columbia, told IRNA Friday that
according to US intelligence Iran terminated its ?experiments with
nuclear weaponisation in 2003 after Saddam was defeated and the Iraqi
threat to Iran was eliminated.?
Mohamed ElBaradie, the director general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, provided the members of the agency's Board of Governors
with his latest report on Iran?s nuclear program. In it, he said,
Iran?s nuclear program is not diverted to the military purposes and
the agency continues to verify the non-military nature of Iran?s
nuclear program.
Sick said Iran?s nuclear facilities including its centrifuges are
under the routine control and inspection by the IAEA.
?Today, after more than two decades, Iran has a single nuclear power
plant which is still not functioning and a uranium-enrichment program
involving some 5,000 low-capacity centrifuges under routine monitoring
and inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency,? Sick said.
Referring to the peaceful intentions of Iran in having a nuclear
program, he said Tehran has constantly declared that ?it does not
intend to build nuclear weapons and the such weapons are anti-Islamic.?
Sick said that the IAEA, though suspicious of Iran?s ultimate
intentions, has found no credible evidence of a nuclear-weapons
program in Iran.
Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only but
the West is accusing the country of producing enriched uranium for
military purposes. The IAEA has for several times indicated that
Iran's nuclear activities are not aimed at military applications.
The British media reported on Friday that Iran has slowed down the
rate at which enrichment capacity is expanding. They also quoted UN
officials as saying that the country has stockpiled more than 1,000
kilograms of low-enriched uranium even though it has less centrifuges
operational since last November.
Earlier last week, Sick told a number of experts in London that the
western approach towards Iran?s nuclear program in the past decades
has been ?misguided and ineffective?.
Referring to three sets of UN-imposed sanctions on Iran and other
limitations created by the US government, he said Iranian scientists
have been more successful in the past decade in view of the sanctions.
Iran recently put its own satellite "Omid" into orbit, making another
acheivement for the country's science and technology sector which has
been under sanctions for the past 30 years after the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.
?When we started the process of sanctions, Iran did not have a single
centrifuge. Now that we are approaching the end of this process, Iran
has developed 5,000 centrifuges. It could be impossible for Tehran to
access this know-how if the West did not impose sanctions on the
country,? Sick said.
He added that Iran should be given the opportunity of playing a more
responsible role in the region and a process of confidence building
should be initiated between Iran and the West including the Untied
States.
He proposed that the new US President Barack Obama open an interest
section in Tehran and come to the negotiating table, without any
precondition.