The UN nuclear watchdog agency takes up the sensitive issue of Iran this week amid growing fears that the global treaty that seeks to prevent the spread of atomic weapons is unraveling.
With reports that Iran may be trying to develop a nuclear arsenal, along with worries about North Korea, experts are questioning whether it's really possible to stop countries -- let alone terrorists -- from acquiring such weapons.
Yesterday's meeting of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) comes 10 days after an internal report claiming that Iran failed to honor promises to disclose its use of nuclear material. The US wants the agency to declare Iran in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
"We are at a very important time," said David Albright, a nuclear weapons expert.
"If the nonproliferation regime cannot solve this problem with Iran, I think the nonproliferation treaty will become not irrelevant, but a place where the good guys show that they are good guys -- not a real treaty that can be used to resolve tensions."
Under the treaty, the declared nuclear powers of the 1960s -- the US, China, France, Russia and Britain -- agreed to reduce their arsenals, ensure that nuclear technology was used only for peaceful purposes, and stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
But the treaty has failed to discourage other nations -- such as India and Pakistan -- from developing nuclear weapons. Israel is widely believed to have nuclear arms, though it is unconfirmed. North Korea is also suspected of developing nuclear weapons.
Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at producing electricity for energy needs as oil supplies wear down.
Suspicion about those claims prompted Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the Vienna-based IAEA, to tour Iran's nuclear facilities in February. The visit was intended to ensure that Iran's nuclear program was limited to peaceful, civilian purposes and that the facilities were safe.
ElBaradei's tour included a visit to the incomplete nuclear plant in Natanz, about 320km south of Tehran. At the time, diplomats said he was taken aback by the advanced stage of a project using hundreds of centrifuges to enrich uranium.
A copy of the report that followed indicates that Iran failed to declare the importation of some nuclear material and its subsequent processing. The report said the quantities were not large and the nuclear material would need further processing before it could be used in an explosive device.
But it cautioned that "the number of failures by Iran to report the material, facilities and activities in question in a timely manner as it is obliged to do ... is a matter of concern."
The report also revealed that Iran was building a heavy water production plant. Heavy water is used in nuclear power plants and can provide a method for producing plutonium for use in weapons.
"The Iran regime's nuclear weapons program is very serious and advanced. They want the bomb by 2005," Alireza Jafarzadeh, a Washington-based leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said in a telephone interview on Sunday.
"They got this far because of extensive international inattention," Jafarzadeh added. "They behave like outlaws. Those who are monitoring the situation are very concerned about what Iran has."
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