ElBaradei repeats same charge on centrifuges contamination

Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei yesterday once again repeated contamination of centrifuges Iran has bought from abroad to highly enriched uranium.

Iranian mission to IAEA has so far provided the agency with information that the contamination had originated from abroad and examination of the centrifuges by the agency's inspectors admitted that traces of enrichment dated back to before Iran purchased them.

It is surprising that the IAEA director general has renewed the same charge taken from the environmental samples in his report to the Board of Governors meeting, despite, Iranian explanations so far to clear the charge.

ElBaradei, who can be considered a partisan in this nuclear file issue, because of his public statements about Iran's file, in which he talked about political and economic factors in the Middle East as being part of the problem, and calling on Iran to suspend nuclear fuel making "to build confidence" when the technical side of his agency, as opposed to the political Board Of Governors of the agency, has verified that its investigation and oversight have shown no proof that Iran has diverted from its civil nuclear program.

It is not clear if repeating these charges, that have been cleared by his agency, is aimed at playing a political role in support of the US and EU position in adding public pressure on Iran.