Nuclear expert says Iran fears for security

NewYork, Feb 27: Hans Blix, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, said the world's approach to Iran's nuclear ambitions humiliated Tehran by insisting it stop research without giving any security guarantees.

Blix, who was chief UN inspector for Iraq after 16 years as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran feared for its government's safety, with US troops in neighboring Iraq and in Afghanistan.

''People have their own pride whether you like them or don't,'' Blix told reporters yesterday. ''We haven't heard anything about offers on guarantees for security in case they will go along with a renunciation of enrichment.

''It's the United States that can deliver assurances about security. It's US that can deliver recognition or normalization of relations.'' Blix was briefing reporters at the start of a conference on international security, organized by The Century Foundation, a Washington-based research institute.

The United States, Germany, France and Britain are considering imposing additional U.N. sanctions against Iran because Tehran has failed to meet Security Council deadlines to stop uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or bombs.

The Bush administration and some Western nations believe Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of peaceful research while Tehran insists its nuclear program is for power generation only.

Blix said the United States and other western nations should engage in direct talks with Iran, rather than simply ordering Tehran to suspend research first.

''This is in a way like telling a child, first you will behave and thereafter you will be given your rewards,'' Blix said. ''This, I think, is humiliating.'' He said it was like a poker player tossing ''away his trump card before he sits down at the table.'' The Europeans had given Iran a list of incentives, which the United States eventually supported last year.

Blix said he did not know what stage of development Iran had reached in its nuclear research, begun after Iraq had invaded its territory. But he said Saddam Hussein had had a far more developed nuclear program in the early 1990s than Iran seemed to have after nearly two decades of research.

Contrasting the Iran situation with the six-party negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program, Blix noted that security concerns as well as Pyongyang's relations with the United States were being addressed. But he said a deal with North Korea could have been concluded ''much earlier'' and prevented the country from conducting a nuclear test last year.

Reuters