Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is correct. Dr. Elbaradei made a number of comments in June and July on the issue. We must be careful because there have been cases of selective, out of context quotations as there always are in these issues. A month earlier he said it was his gut feeling that Iran would like to have the technologies "to enable it to have nuclear weapons if they decided to do so". Addressing the IAEA board earlier this month, he stated that Iran had not co-operated with the agency. From the discussions I have been party to within the European Council, a cat and mouse game is being played and this is causing difficulties. It serves Iran ill to behave in this manner because it allows speculation. Deputy Higgins is correct in saying that Dr. Elbaradei made those comments. One must be even-handed in these matters. That is very important because the tut-tutting and finger-pointing at Iran alone is unlikely to bring Iran into the space we want to bring it into.

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