AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Doha: International sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program would be a bad idea, the head of the world body's atomic energy watchdog said in Doha Thursday. “Sanctions are a bad idea. We are not facing an imminent threat,” Mohamed ElBaradei said during an address to students at the Qatar Foundation.
He also stated that he sees a “Middle East that is in a really dangerous situation.”
Iran refused Thursday to comply with a UN Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment, defying a warning from major world powers which fear Tehran secretly wants an atomic bomb.
Foreign ministers of the UN Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany warned at talks in Berlin that Iran would find itself isolated if it pursued the standoff over its nuclear program.
That followed a non-binding statement approved unanimously by the world body late Wednesday giving Iran 30 days to abandon uranium enrichment activities.
ElBaradei said: “My message to Iran: the international community is getting impatient and you need to respond by arming me with information.
“Iran has the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” he added, while saying that “to think of using nuclear weapons is inconceivable.
