'Security guarantee needed from US before Iran agreement'
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei said today he thinks the US will need to give Iran a security guarantee before a final agreement can be reached regarding the country’s atomic programme.
ElBaradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said the US will need to become more involved in the stalled negotiations between Iran and the European Union, aimed at making Tehran permanently freeze nuclear enrichment.
“I think part of the negotiations should be providing Iran with security assurances,” ElBaradei said after meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson to discuss the work of the IAEA.
“I hope that as the negotiations with the European Union proceed that the US at a certain point will be more engaged. We look at the US ... to do the heavy lifting in the area of security.”
In September, North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear programme in exchange for security guarantees and energy aid, and ElBaradei said a similar package will be needed to bring the negotiations with Iran to a successful close. Tehran temporarily froze its enrichment programme in November 2004, but the Europeans want it permanently halted.
“I very much see (security assurances by the US) as part of the final solution,” ElBaradei said.
Concern that Iran may be pursuing a nuclear weapons programme has strained relations between Tehran and Washington, and the US has imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, preventing American companies from doing business in the country. Iran says its nuclear programme is designed only to generate electricity.
Israeli officials today said they would not rule out a military strike if Iran advances in efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
ElBaradei and the IAEA received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, on Saturday, for their efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons.
When accepting the award, ElBaradei said the international community is “losing patience” with Iran over its nuclear programme.
By tradition, after accepting the award, the peace prize winner usually travels to Sweden, where the Nobel awards in science and literature are handed out.
ElBaradei and Yukiya Amano, chairman of the IAEA’s board of governors, who accepted the award on behalf of the UN nuclear watchdog, also had lunch at the downtown royal palace with Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia.
Tomorrow, ElBaradei will participate in a panel discussion with university students in Uppsala, 45 miles north of Stockholm.
