U.N. Nuclear Agency Calls Iran Inquiry ‘Dead End’

(From the Nov. 26, 2009 New York Times)

The director of the United Nations nuclear watchdog warned Thursday that its investigation into Iran’s nuclear program had “effectively reached a dead end” after more than a year of stonewalling by Tehran.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the departing director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, issued an unusually direct rebuke of Iran’s intransigence in a speech in Vienna, saying that it had been more than a year since Iran had answered questions about the extent of its nuclear ambitions, including suspicions that it is pursuing nuclear weapons.

“It is now well over a year since the agency was last able to engage Iran in discussions about these outstanding issues,” Dr. ElBaradei said in remarks to the nuclear agency’s governors. “We have effectively reached a dead end, unless Iran engages fully with us.”

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