ElBaradei: Iran’s Qom Facility ‘Nothing to Be Worried About’

"It's a Hole in a Mountain," IAEA Chief Notes

Though the full details of the IAEA’s findings won’t be available until some time later this month, the nuclear watchdog’s chief Mohamed ElBaradei says that inspectors found “nothing to be worried about” in their inspection of Iran’s Qom facility in October.

“It’s a hole in a mountain,” ElBaradei noted, saying the site was indeed, as Iran said, a backup enrichment site in case the Natanz facility gets attacked by Israel or the US.

The information was in stark contrast to the claims by an Israeli general earlier this week that the site had “no possible civilian use.” Major General Yadlin agreed though that the primary goal of the site was to make it harder for Israel to sabotage Iran’s program.

In somewhat related news, the IAEA has also asked Iran to explain evidence it was presented that scientists in the nation have experimented with an advanced warhead design. The evidence was reportedly given to them by Western intelligence agencies, though details about how old or reliable the evidence was is not available.

If true, the development would allow Iran to hypothetically develop an efficient nuclear warhead, though Iran is still not enriching uranium to anywhere near a high enough level to create such a warhead and the IAEA has repeatedly certified that the nation is not diverting any of its uranium to any such purpose.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.