Prepared by IAEA Director-General Mohammed ElBaradei, the 10-page report notes that the Tehran administration is taking "essential and transparent steps" to dispel the doubts. ElBaradei's report contains very broad information, covering even the pre-revolution era in regard to Iran's nuclear program. The accuracy of this information was approved as a result of meetings the agency had with third parties, which all clarify the source of nuclear pollution in some centrifuges and matters regarding the manufacture of P1 and P2 centrifuges used in enriching uranium -- an issue particularly brought up by the US and other Western countries. The report also stresses that Iran was very comfortable about allowing meetings with local and foreign people and institutes that contribute to its nuclear program.
While the IAEA clearly posits, as a result of the comprehensive research carried out in Iran, that no trace of military intent was found in any phase of the nuclear activities, it underscores that the nuclear program continues for non-military purposes. In other words, the defense put up by Iran is accepted by the IAEA in its essence.
As you can guess, the report met with an adverse reaction by Israel. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Majalli Whbee said, "The report did not reveal the intentions of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." Nor is the United States content with the information and assessments in the report. Of course, at the next stage, the subject will enter the UN's agenda. It's difficult to make any accurate assessments at this early stage on how the report having been disclosed this way would impact the decision to be made on Iran and what sort of methods and instruments the United States would resort to in order to get a negative decision to be made about Iran. But there is one thing which is not difficult to foresee: If the Unites States has devised a serious plan to carry out a military operation against Iran, it will develop other maneuvers to realize this operation.
As you will remember, it was revealed that the US commanders in Iraq put a lot of pressure on interrogators to have them provide evidence from the insurgents in custody that would be instrumental in accusing Iran, and news articles are still published about this pressure. Micah Brose, a privately contracted interrogator working for the US military in Iraq who was in charge of gathering information from detainees near the Iranian border, told British newspaper The Observer that information about Iran is "gold." In a statement he made to the British paper, he said, "They push a lot for us to establish a link with Iran." Stating that "it feels a lot like, if you get something and Iran's not involved, it's a letdown," the interrogator said reports about Washington's increasingly hawkish stance towards Tehran, including possible military action, made sense to him given his experience. Brose added, "The engine needs impetus and they're looking for us to find the fuel -- a particular type of fuel." Brose also noted that how the current course of events would end was contingent on who would be elected to succeed President Bush.
Apparently, certain groups in the United States are committed to do something certain: carry out an effective operation against Iran. It doesn't really matter for them to what extent the obtained evidence is accurate, sound and reliable in terms of international law and legitimacy. What matters is that the information and the labels put on Iran in the "press market" work for the time being in order to launch an operation. If the world public can be kept busy with fabricated evidence until the operation begins, even this would be enough. Ultimately, did the United States not put forward a mountain of manufactured evidence against Iraq? Later on, highest-ranking Americans -- for instance former Secretary of State Colin Powell -- and the American media stated that they had been misled with "wrong information and fabricated evidence." However, what has happened has befallen the Iraqi people. The forces that are so dauntless as to play with the law as easily as they play with weapons are now doing their utmost to inflict the same disaster on the Iranian people.
