Iran Wants Nuclear Weapon Technology -ElBaradei

Mohamed ElBaradei

From Reuters:

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Iran wants the ability to build nuclear weapons to gain the reputation of a major power in the Middle East, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a BBC interview broadcast on Wednesday.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran sees nuclear weapons as an "insurance policy" against perceived threats from neighbouring countries or the United States.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election has cast doubt on Western powers' hopes of a new dialogue with Iran over its nuclear programme, which Iran says is for producing electricity only, not atomic bombs.

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My Comment: This is a 180 degree change from what Mohamed ElBaradei was saying a year ago. I guess seeing hundreds of thousands of young people on the streets in Tehran made him realize that maybe the Iranian Government is made up of a bunch of gangsters who should not be trusted with something like nuclear technologies.