Remember the reports about how Israeli and US had accused outgoing IAEA head Elbaradei of "censoring" reports on Iran and "hiding" damning summary of secret intelligence on Iran's nuclear program that supposedly proved Iran was making nuclear weapons? and how there was an "internal debate" in the IAEA over the issue? And how famously pro-Israeli and pro-MKO Congresswoman from Florida had condemned the IAEA?
Well, not so fast:
The U.N. nuclear watchdog on Friday hit back at reports that it had hidden information about Iran's disputed atomic program, in a rare public comment on the agency's sensitive inspections work.
Some media reports, citing unnamed Western diplomats and Israeli officials, have said International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei withheld "evidence" of an alleged Iranian drive to obtain nuclear weapons.
"Time and again unidentified sources feed the media and Member States with misinformation or misinterpretation," IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said in a statement.
"There are articles claiming that the (IAEA) secretariat is hiding information, and that there are sharp disagreements among staff members involved about the contents of the report. Needless to say, such allegations have no basis in fact."
"Time and time again" -- that's an interesting reminder of the the long history of Israel and the US bashing the IAEA and promoting disinformation about Iran's nuclear program. I can think of a number of occasions when the friction became public:
1- When the Israelis accused Elbaradei of being "pro-Iranian" because they didn't like the IAEA's conclusion that there was no evidence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran.
2- When the US had resorted to tapping Elbaradei's phone in order to force him out of office.
3-When it was claimed that enriched uranium had gone missing right under the IAEA's nose, which turned out no to be true.
4- When a US congressional report claimed that a weapons inspector had been removed by the IAEA from Iran because he had supposedly wanted to "tell the truth" about Iran's nuclear program, and that Iran was making highly-enriched uranium -- which was branded as not being honest by the IAEA.
5- When they warned Elbaradei that he was only in charge of the technical matters of verification and and should not "interfere in diplomacy" by "taking the wind out of the sails of pressuring Iran" -- meaning he should not shoot down the nuclear scaremongering over Iran with facts and constructive measures.
6- When the IAEA officials complained in 2009 that US intelligence provided to the IAEA since 2002 had turned out to be bogus.
7- Or when they criticized the IAEA for drawing up a timetable to resolve oustanding issues (which Iran abided by, and the IAEA said all the issues had been resolved except for "alleged" studies that Iran "supposedly" carried out in the past.)
8- Or when they claimed that Iran had "more uranium" than expected by the IAEA which supposedly the UN said was enough to make a bomb (the UN said no such thing -- that was a conclusion the NY Times and other outlets reached on their own and falsely attributed to the UN.)
9- When it was claimed in 2007 that Iran had "blocked" access to international inspectors -- which again the IAEA had to debunk.
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