Iran wants option of nuclear weapon, ElBaradei says (2nd Lead)

Jun 17, 2009, 15:34 GMT

London/Vienna - Iran is mastering nuclear technology and believes firmly in having the strategic option of a nuclear weapon, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in a BBC interview Wednesday.

'It is my gut feeling that Iran would like to have the technology to enable it to have nuclear weapons,' ElBaradei said.

'They want to send a message to their neighbours, to the rest of the world: Don't mess with us. But the ultimate aim of Iran, as I understand it, is they want to be recognized as a major power in the Middle East,' said the IAEA Director General.

Iran's ambassador at the IAEA in Vienna rejected ElBaradei's comments.

'If you quoted him right, he's absolutely wrong,' Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters on the sidelines of an meeting of the IAEA's governing board. 'We don't have any intention of having a nuclear weapon at all.'

Such weapons are not part of Iran's defence doctrine, and the nuclear programme serves only peaceful purposes, the diplomat said.

The United States said at an IAEA meeting in Vienna that Iran's refusal to fully cooperate with the nuclear agency 'deeply undermines Iran's assertion that its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful in nature.'

The US envoy also reminded member countries on the IAEA's governing board that Iran possesses or is near possessing enough uranium material to produce one nuclear weapon, if it decided to do so.

Iran has repeatedly stated that it had no intent to take the necessary additional technical steps in that direction.

ElBaradei said in his interview that Iran sees its nuclear programme as a road to power and prestige in the Middle East, and as an insurance policy against regime change.

He urged western countries to engage with Iran to remove the incentive for making a bomb.

The US reiterated its commitment to finding a diplomatic solution in the nuclear row with Tehran, through talks involving also Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

Iran has so far not taken up this standing offer. Tehran has ignored Security Council resolutions calling for a halt of the enrichment programme and answering outstanding questions about possible nuclear-weapons-related studies in the past. It has also not allowed more thorough IAEA inspections.