CIA finds no evidence of nukes in Iran

NEW YORK—A noted US investigative journalist says a classified draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of any move by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the United States and some other western countries.
“The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons programme running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Seymour Hersh wrote in an article for the November 27 edition of the New Yorker magazine. Details of the article were released on Sunday.
The analysis was carried out using satellite photos, and the testing of water and smoke from suspected sites for traces of radioactivity, it said. No significant amount was detected. A high-ranking security source confirmed the existence of the report and said that the Bush administration, particularly Vice President Dick Cheney and his aides, rejected the findings, believing instead that the Iranian nuclear weapons programme is merely well hidden, the article said.
The US and other Western nations believe that the Iranian uranium enrichment programme is aimed at building nuclear weapons. However, Teheran has said the programme has purely peaceful and civilian goals.
The UN atomic agency is expected this week to heed US calls to put off granting Iran help in building a nuclear reactor that could provide plutonium for nuclear weapons. A Western diplomat told AFP the leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had “no intention of cooperating (on the Arak reactor) while Iran is out of compliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions” to rein in its nuclear program.
US ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte said in a speech in Vienna last week that given “the widespread mistrust of Iran’s nuclear program and the risk of plutonium being diverted for use in weapons, the United States and other board members cannot agree to have the IAEA assist the project at Arak.”
The IAEA’s 35-nation governing board, which opens a week-long meeting Monday in Vienna, had in February asked Iran to “reconsider” building a heavy-water reactor at Arak, 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Tehran. This was re-stated in a UN Security Council resolution in July, which also called on Iran to suspend making enriched uranium, which like plutonium can be fuel in civilian reactors but used in highly enriched form to make atom bombs. The Council is now working on a resolution to impose sanctions on Iran, as Tehran has refused to suspend uranium enrichment.
Schulte said the Arak reactor “could produce enough plutonium for one or more nuclear weapons a year.” Iran says it is building the 40-megawatt, heavy-water reactor, which is expected to be ready by 2009, to produce medical isotopes and to replace a smaller, aging, five-megawatt light-water reactor in Tehran which came online in 1967.
The United States and five other world powers have offered to give Iran a light-water reactor, which would use low-enriched uranium as fuel, as an alternative. But Iran has vowed to press ahead with the Arak reactor, even without IAEA help.
The expected IAEA postponement of aid to Arak would be a compromise as the United States would like the agency simply to reject Iran’s request for help in “strengthening safety capabilities” at the heavy-water reactor, diplomats said. Non-aligned states such as Malaysia fear an outright rejection could set a precedent for denying technical aid for peaceful nuclear programs in developing countries, diplomats said.—Agencies