Iran has not yet provided a "final answer" to a "unique" international nuclear fuel offer, Mohamed ElBaradei, the outgoing head of the UN nuclear watchdog, said on Friday.
"I do not consider that I have received a final answer," ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in Berlin. "But I also very much hope that I will get an answer pretty much soon."
"We have not received any written response from Iran. What I got of course is an oral response, which basically said 'we need to keep all the material in Iran until we get the fuel,'" he said. "That to me is a case of extreme mistrust."
He added: "I believe that frankly the ball is very much in the Iranian court. I hope that they will not miss this unique and fleeting opportunity ... I hope that we will get an agreement by the end of the year."
In an attempt to draw Iran into talks and guarantee that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, six world powers have offered to reprocess some of its low-enriched uranium abroad.
But on Wednesday, Iran appeared to reject the proposal out of hand, prompting US President Barack Obama to warn of "consequences" in the form of tougher sanctions.
Representatives from the six powers -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- were meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss the next steps in what ElBaradei called "an environment of desperation."
ElBaradei, who steps down at the end of November after 12 years, raised doubts about the efficacy of fresh sanctions against the Islamic republic.
"I would hate to see that we are moving back to sanctions. Sanctions at the end of the day, in most cases, hurt the vulnerable and the innocent. It really doesn't resolve issues.
"It would lead to more confrontation, it would lead Iran to make possibly more provocative actions. We should do everything possible to avoid that."
He said that previous sanctions, such as on Iraq before the US-led invasion in 2003, had been "horrible" with "in the name of human rights ... an egregious violation of human rights."
"Mr. Saddam Hussein continued to enrich himself as a result of these sanctions. It did not hurt in any way his government," he said.
"If sanctions are going to be applied, we are going to need 'smart sanctions', that is targeting governments and not people," ElBaradei said.
He added in a "message to the Iranian leadership: You need to engage in creative diplomacy, you need to understand that this is the first time when you will have a genuine commitment by a US president to engage with you."
"The international community has a lot to gain by regularising relations. Iran in my view is the gate to stability to the Middle East, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. It's a win-win situation."
Source: AFP Global Edition
