Britannia Radio

Con Coughlin

Con Coughlin, the Telegraph's executive foreign editor, is a world-renowned expert on the Middle East and Islamic terrorism. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books. His new book, Khomeini's Ghost, is published by Macmillan.

With Mohamed ElBaradei out of the way, the truth can now be revealed about Iran's nuclear weapon programme

By Con Coughlin Defence Last updated: February 19th, 2010

163 Comments Comment on this article

Mohamed ElBaradei was in charge of the IAEA until November 2009 (Photo: AFP/Getty)

Has anyone else noticed that, now Mohamed AlBaradei is no longer in charge of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, we are suddenly seeing a more realistic assessment of what the Iranians are really up to with their nuclear programme?

For years the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, the body responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear programme, has pulled its punches, even when confronted with the most glaring evidence that Iran was trying to mislead the West as to its true intentions. The reason for this was that the Egyptian-born Mr ElBaradei was desperate to avoid a conflict between the West and Iran, just as his close friend Hans Blix refused to hold Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to account for year’s of non-compliance with various U.N. resolutions.

Even when Mr ElBaradei’s inspection teams found traces of high enriched uranium in Iran – which can only be used to make nuclear weapons – he still instructed the agency to play down the significance of the findings.

Now that Mr ElBaradei is no longer with the IAEA, we are receiving a more sober assessment of what the Iranians are really up to. Its new report on Iran unequivocally accuses of Iran of carrying out work to build a nuclear bomb. Specifically it says that Tehran has now processed enough enriched uranium to make a bomb.

This is a startling – and important – departure from the IAEA’s more cautious assessments that were published when Mr ElBaradei was in charge, and begs the question just what he was playing at. Western diplomats say Mr ElBaradei was scarred by the Iraq experience, and did not want to make the same mistake with Iran.

To me this constitutes a dereliction of duty. Thanks to Mr ElBaradei, Iran is now much further advanced with its nuclear programme than it would have been had Mr ElBaradei allowed the real truth about Iran’s activities to be made public. And thanks to Mr ElBaradei’s policy of appeasement towards Iran, the world is now a far more dangerous place.

STOP PRESS: I hear Mr AlBaradei is letting it be known that, following his triumphant reign at the IAEA, he might be prepared to become Egypt’s next President! Pity the poor Egyptians!

Tags: International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran, Mohamed ElBaradei,nuclear, Nuclear Weapons