Excerpts from previous status reports, by subject
Removed on June 13, 2007
ElBaradei remarks on Iran’s enrichment knowledge
In controversial remarks by IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei released in mid-May, he noted that “from a proliferation perspective, the fact of the matter is that one of the purposes of suspension—keeping [Iran] from getting the knowledge—has been overtaken by events. ElBaradei further noted that “the focus should be to stop [Iran] from going to industrial scale production, to allow [the IAEA] to do a full court press inspection and to be sure they remain inside the [Nuclear Non-Proliferation] Treaty.
U.S. military exercises in the Persian Gulf
The United States has used exercises conducted under the Proliferation Security Initiative to improve efforts at interdicting suspicious shipments to and from Iran. An exercise which began on October 28, 2006 in international waters off the coast of Bahrain focused on tracking a ship suspected of carrying weapon components. Taking part in the exercise were Italy, France, Australia, United States and Britain, with one ship each, and Bahrain, with three ships. South Korea, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were observers to the exercise. In addition, the United States staged military exercises off Iran’s coast on May 23, involving two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship. This follows air and sea exercises involving two carrier groups held over two days in March.