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ElBaradei says IAEA will pursue inspections, report back to U.N. in
January
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei said his agency has made a preliminary assessment of Iraq's
declaration concerning nuclear related materials and so far has found
"no evidence of prohibited activities."
Speaking at a briefing to the United Nations Security Council December
19, ElBaradei said IAEA inspectors have conducted a total of 74
inspections since November 27, and plan to expand the scope of
inspections in order to include "a detailed investigation of Iraq's
activities over the last four years."
ElBaradei said the IAEA will update the Security Council in January
with a detailed assessment of Iraq's declaration after two months of
inspections.
In Iraq's declaration to the Security Council, it said that all of its
nuclear program activities were "practically terminated and abandoned
during April 1991," said ElBaradei. However, he mentioned that the
objective of the IAEA inspections was not only to verify that Iraq was
not carrying out prohibited activities, but also to "re-establish
knowledge of Iraqi nuclear capabilities."
Following is the text of ElBaradei's remarks to the Security Council
Preliminary Assessment of the Nuclear-related "Currently Accurate, Full and Complete Declaration" Submitted by Iraq
Informal Briefing of the United Nations Security Council
Mohamed ElBaradei
Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency
19 December 2002
1. On 8 December 2002, the IAEA received at its Headquarters in
Vienna, under cover of a letter dated 7 December 2002 from Dr. Amir Al
Sa'adi, Advisor to the Office of the Presidency of Iraq, the
nuclear-related declaration submitted by Iraq in response to paragraph
3 of resolution 1441 (2002). The declaration consists of seven
volumes: the first six are entitled "The past Iraqi nuclear programme"
and cover Iraq's nuclear activities prior to 1991; the seventh is
entitled "Nuclear programme from 1991 up to 2002". The six volumes of
the first part are predominantly in the English language; the seventh
volume is largely in Arabic.
2. The Security Council has before it an edited copy of the Iraqi
declaration. As explained in the cover letter to the President of the
Security Council conveying the edited version of the declaration, the
IAEA excised aspects of the declaration which included:
-- information which related to weapons technology or nuclear
weaponization processes;
-- information describing Iraq's attempts to develop nuclear weapons
technology, weaponization processes or sensitive fissile material
production equipment or technology; and
-- information which would provide a "shopping list" of sensitive
equipment or a "guide" as to where to purchase it.
3. The IAEA's editing of Iraq's declaration prior to providing it to
the Security Council has been minimal consistent with the principle
that proliferation sensitive information should not be released. The
IAEA has attempted to balance what should be deleted to prevent the
dissemination of sensitive information with the aim of providing as
much information as possible to Members of the Security Council.
4. In carrying out its preliminary assessment of the Iraqi
declaration, the IAEA has concentrated on:
-- A comparison of Iraq's current declaration regarding its nuclear
programme prior to 1991 with the "Full, Final and Complete
Declaration" (FFCD) provided by Iraq in April 1998; and
-- The review of Iraq's declaration regarding its nuclear programme
over the period 1991 to 2002, with particular emphasis on Iraqi
activities since late 1998.
5. Iraq's overall conclusion with respect to its nuclear programme is
as follows:
"No activities of any substance related to the former INP were carried
out during and beyond April 1991. All nuclear program activities were
practically terminated and abandoned during April 1991 and only
reports of previous accomplishments and new missions (non-proscribed)
were issued later." (Extended Summary, page 86/113)
6. Iraq's current declaration of its nuclear programme prior to 1991
contains no substantive changes from the FFCD provided to the IAEA in
1998. The declaration does contain numerous clarifications, but does
not include any additional documentation related to areas which were
identified in previous IAEA reports as requiring further
clarification, particularly weapons design or centrifuge development.
7. Iraq states that its nuclear activities from 1991 to 2002 have been
limited to the use of radioisotopes for non-proscribed purposes (e.g,
medical, agricultural and industrial uses), in conformity with
Security Council resolution 707 (1991). The remainder of the
declaration covering the post-1991 period is devoted to a description
of the activities conducted at current and former Iraqi Atomic Energy
Commission (IAEC) sites, at locations established since 1991 to which
a number of former IAEC personnel were transferred, and at other
industrial locations that had supported the weapons development
programme.
8. The IAEC sites were heavily damaged during the Gulf War. IAEA
inspection teams, pursuant to the Security Council mandate in
resolution 687 (1991), eliminated all remaining weapons development
infrastructure at these sites. In its CAFCD, Iraq has declared that
the current and former IAEC sites, as well as the locations to which
former personnel were transferred, are now devoted to the conduct of
non-nuclear commercial activities. The other support locations are
declared as being involved in a variety of industrial and military
applications. All of these sites and locations were subject to
on-going monitoring and verification prior to 1998.
9. It should be noted that, in the course of the meeting that took
place in Baghdad on 19 November 2002, the Iraqi counterpart, referring
to a number of published reports, acknowledged that Iraq had made
several unsuccessful attempts since 1991 to import high-strength
aluminum tubing, but stated that the tubing had been intended for the
manufacture of 81-millimetre rockets and not for the enrichment of
uranium. These attempts are not mentioned in the Iraqi declaration
covering post-1991 activities, although the IAEA understands that it
is referred to in the part of the declaration that deals with
missiles. The IAEA intends to pursue this matter further with Iraq. In
addition, during that same meeting in Baghdad, the Iraqi authorities,
referring again to published reports, denied any efforts to import
uranium after 1991. The declaration makes no mention of this issue,
but the matter will be pursued further by the IAEA. As previously
reported to the Council by the IAEA, all nuclear material known to
exist in Iraq (mostly natural uranium) remains under IAEA control at a
storage location in Iraq, and has been subject to periodic
verification since 1998 pursuant to Iraq's Safeguards Agreement under
the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
10. As a result of our assessment to date of the Iraqi declaration,
the following preliminary conclusions can be drawn:
a. Iraq's declaration concerning its past nuclear programme contains
no substantive differences from the 1998 FFCD; accordingly, like the
FFCD, the recent declaration appears to be consistent with the
coherent picture of the Iraqi nuclear weapons meeting with their Iraqi
counterparts to establish logistical arrangements and to re-instate
the inspectorates' office in Baghdad. IAEA inspections began on 27
November 2002 and have been ongoing since then. The IAEA's presence in
Baghdad was increased to about 30 inspectors, and this level will be
by and large maintained through at least the period required for the
assessment of Iraq's CAFCD.
13. Since the resumption of Security Council mandated activities in
Iraq, the IAEA has conducted sixty-eight inspections, including
inspections at a Presidential Site and at six sites that had not
previously been inspected. Inspections have been carried out without
prior notification to Iraq except where notification was necessary to
ensure that specific support from the counterpart would be available
at the facility (e.g. a crane for the removal of Agency air samplers),
and immediate access has been provided by the Iraqi authorities. No
evidence of prohibited activities has been detected, though the
results of the collection of environmental samples are not yet
available.
14. The objective of current inspections, beyond gaining assurance
that Iraq is not carrying out prohibited activities, is to
re-establish knowledge of Iraqi nuclear capabilities, including the
identification of the location of major equipment and of key technical
personnel. In the coming weeks, the scope of the inspections will be
expanded to include a detailed investigation of Iraq's activities over
the last four years, the follow-up of issues identified as a result of
our analysis of the CAFCD, and the seeking of additional
clarifications on certain aspects of Iraq's past nuclear weapons
programme.
15. The verification activities carried out by the IAEA in Iraq will
involve exercising all of the IAEA's rights under relevant Security
Council resolutions, including resolution 1441 (2002). These
activities will include: follow-up with Iraqi authorities on CAFCD
related issues; on-site inspection activities; the collection of
environmental samples at known and new locations; satellite imagery
analysis; gamma radiation monitoring; and interviews with Iraqi
officials and other persons, subject to modalities and at locations
deemed appropriate by the IAEA.
16. A detailed assessment of the CAFCD and of the results of two
months of inspections will be undertaken expeditiously and progress
achieved will be described in the IAEA's update report to the Council
in January 2003.
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