VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear agency head Mohamed ElBaradei was interviewed by Reuters Wednesday.
Here are some of the highlights:
FUEL DEAL WITH IRAN
"(Iran) wants a simultaneous swap with the fuel and the low-enriched uranium. They are ready to put this material under IAEA control on an island in the Persian Gulf.
"But that will not take the material out and the whole idea as I explained to them, to defuse the crisis, is to take the material out.
"I do not think (the Iranian idea) will work as far as the West is concerned. They would like to see the material out of the country with all the guarantees.
IRANIAN POLITICS ON FUEL DEAL
"This (deal) is a unique opportunity but it is a fleeting opportunity. Unfortunately the issue has become a victim of domestic politics in Iran. What we see today is really the domestic politics on both sides taking the front seat, which is very unfortunate."
IRAN'S SECOND ENRICHMENT SITE
"Iran did not tell us in time that they were building that facility -- of course that doesn't create confidence, it adds to the confidence deficit.
"I don't want to be surprised tomorrow by Iran saying well, we have been constructing this facility for the past two years and we didn't tell you because we were afraid of being bombed.
"While I made it very clear that Iran was on the wrong side of the law, its action was inconsistent with our regulations.
I also made it clear that people should stop threatening the use of force because that simply adds to confrontation and creates a justification or pretext for whatever you would like to say -- for countries to say well, we have to go underground because we are being threatened."
PURPOSE OF FORDOW SITE
"It's designed for 3,000 centrifuges. The Iranians have said that this is to protect (their) technology in case (they) were bombed. To make sure that the technology will continue to be in operation.
"However, for a civilian purpose, no. You cannot really use it for civilian purposes, it's too small to produce fuel for a civilian reactor, it would take a very long time.
"(Iran says it is) to keep the technology, to continue to refine the technology.
"It will not have helped them for civilian purposes. Even for military purposes it is too small to produce the amount of (bomb) material needed, it would take a very long time.
"What their argument is, is that they need a place where they can continue to have the technology."
MORE SITES?
"We have no indication that there are other undeclared facilities in Iran. I want to be very clear about that. Nor do we have any information that such facilities exist."
SANCTIONS
"We have gone through a lot of Security Council resolutions. We have gone through a lot of (IAEA) Board of Governor resolutions. To me, a lot of these are just expressions of frustration that things are not moving. But I don't see them frankly to be helping in finding a durable solution."
ALLEGED WEAPONS STUDIES IN IRAN
"We have no credible evidence that Iran has an ongoing nuclear weapons program. Whether Iran has done studies in the past, that could be, but we are not in a position to say definitely that they have done that.
On our statement that we have enough information that creates concern, in our minds, about a possible military dimension, the answer is yes. However, the problem with most of this information is that this is coming from different sources.
I mentioned to our Board of Governors a couple of months ago, I said, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that if these documents are accurate, authentic then there is high probability that Iran has engaged in military studies, weaponization studies.
(Iran) needs to tell us where is the wheat, where is the chaff (in this information). We are in a dead end in that area.
