Can the IAEA guard against proliferation of nuclear weapons?
Yes. It is appointed to do this job under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It has 200 inspectors who are professionals and who go to the world’s peaceful nuclear installations and verify that no nuclear material is diverted. Under new inspection rules, they can also go to non-declared nuclear installations. But the important point is these new inspection rules have to be accepted by everybody. They are accepted now by the European Union members, by Japan and South Korea. The Iranians have said that they have signed them and that they will apply them. But they have not yet ratified them. They need to be ratified by all countries that have any nuclear activities. Even in the Iraq affair, it has been shown that the IAEA inspections were right. The procedures were correct. It was intelligence that was wrong. The IAEA does not have any physical power. It is not a police force. But it can carry out effective inspections and verify what allegations are right and what are wrong. In North Korea, i
