Excerpts from an Interview with Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei on Aug. 30, 2007

IMPORTANCE OF THE AGREEMENT:

This is the first time that Iran finally agreed to a long-standing request, by the Agency, that confidence in the peaceful use of their program could only be achieved by the Agency coming to grips with the history of their program, its evolution, its current activities. In the last two or three years, they have always shied away from any discussion on the outstanding issues, particularly about the scope and nature of their enrichment program and also about alleged weaponization studies. They, in the past, said, ‘we can't discuss any of that unless the file comes back to Vienna from the Security Council' and before that they said, ‘we can not discuss it except when there is progress in the negotiation with the Europeans'. This is the first time Iran is ready to discuss all the outstanding issues which triggered the crisis in confidence.

It's a significant step that they finally come to realize what I have been telling them for over a number of years, that if you want to clear your name, you need to clear the outstanding issues and you should not put the cart before the horse. First you need to clear the issues, before you can have negotiations with the Europeans, before the international community can start to have confidence. I hope this is a shift of attitude.

[...]

This working arrangement, [or] if you like, framework - there are clear deadlines, so it's not, as some people are saying, an open-ended invitation to dallying with the agency or a ruse to prolong negotiations and avoid sanctions.

The whole process is supposed to start and end within three months and clearly we, in a month or two, will be in a very good position to know whether Iran is serious about resolving the outstanding issues. If not, obviously, it will backfire and it will give every argument to those who are saying that Iran is trying to buy time. So, if it succeeds then it clearly will open the door for a new era of dialogue because, if we are able to say here and now, ‘we have assurance that we understand the issue of the Iranian program and that we are now in a position to also verify the current program', then that would be a new page of hopefully moving from this tension, crisis, name calling, into a period of dialogue and negotiation. It's decisive in that sense; it's a litmus test in my view. It's a decisive moment: is Iran serious to move forward with this issue and if they are, I think they need to be encouraged to move in that direction because I have said, pressure alone will not lead to a durable solution.

But, if Iran were not to act the way we expect it to act - basically with full transparency, in full cooperation, full respect to the deadlines, as they assured me they will - if they don't, again, they've failed the test and they give every opportunity for those who are saying, ‘well, negotiation or dialogue is not working'.

[...]

Are you appealing to the international community to delay any more punitive measures?

I'm saying, ‘here are the facts.' I'm giving you all the facts. I'm seeing what could be the beginning of a new page in the relation between Iran and the Agency ...

Whether the international community and how the international community wants to react, whether they want to encourage Iran, whether they want to say, ‘well you have not suspended so we should apply more sanctions', that's really the judgment call.

I am clear about is that at this stage, you need to give Iran a chance to prove its stated goodwill. [...] sanctions alone, I know for sure, are not going to lead to a durable solution.

There have been a lot of armchair coaches in the last few days, who have been shooting from hip frankly, trying to say, ‘this is not good, this is a delay tactic, this is an effort to manipulate'. That...could be true but I think we need to give the Iranians a chance to prove that they are serious. I am not going to tell them, ‘I don't trust you and therefore I'm not ready to talk to you'. If someone is telling me, ‘I want to cooperate', the minimum I should do is to give them a chance to prove that. And I made it very clear to them, if you are not serious, it will backfire. It will backfire in a big way because nobody then will be able to defend or to come to your support. They know the stakes. [...]

IS THIS an important shift in Iran's strategy?