Ex-weapons
inspector says it may be too late to stop Iran
AFP
WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com
03 13 06
A former top UN and US arms inspector on Iraq said Sunday it may
be too late to stop a nuclear-weapons determined Iran, noting
that there is no consensus on taking military action against Tehran.
"I'm afraid that we probably are past the point where there
is any meaningful alternative other than military action to stop
the Iranians if they are determined to go ahead. And I don't see
that as a possibility," said David Kay, who led the US search
for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq following the 2003 invasion.
"My great fear is indeed we will have to learn to live with
Iran, and all its terrorist connections, with the bomb,"
Kay told NBC television's "Today Show" on Sunday, while
declining to say for certain that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.
Kay ran the Iraq Survey Group that concluded that Iraq had no
chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, even as the White House
continued to insist that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been
a growing threat at the time of the US invasion.
Calling the Tehran regime "toxic," Kay said on Sunday
that the tensions over Iran's nuclear power program -- which the
US believes masks an intention to develop atomic weapons -- differ
from those which preceded the US attack on Iraq.
"This time we have a far more united multilateral coalition
against Iran and we actually have the International Atomic Energy
Agency condemning Iran for 18 years of cheating on its nonproliferation
obligations," he said.
However, Kay said, the coalition is far from agreed on the actions
to take against an Iraq that has rejected pressures to shut down
its uranium enrichment program, which it claims is for peaceful
purposes.
Kay said Europeans in the coalition were particularly bothered
by aggressive statements from US leaders threatening tough UN
sanctions or worse against Iran.
"When you've got in Tehran a regime that is toxic in the
extreme, you really don't need to make the point that there are
serious consequences. Everyone knows where we are moving,"
he said.
Kay, who was the chief UN weapons inspector from 1983 to 1992,
would not say for certain that Iran was seeking to build nuclear
weapons.
"Intentions -- that's always the weakest link in intelligence,
and it certainly is in this case," he said.
"What you can say right now is Iran has taken a number of
steps that are preparatory to having a nuclear weapon. You cannot
say that in fact they definitively made that decision to go ahead
with that weapons program."
AFP
03 12 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved.
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