Threats to attack nuclear plants on suspicion they would one day make bombs could undermine the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog said.
"Unilateral military action undermines the international treaty framework. We're standing at an historic turning point," Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Der Spiegelmagazine.
A senior Israeli official said yesterday an attack on Iran looked "unavoidable" because UN sanctions seemed unable to prevent Tehran developing nuclear technology with bomb-making potential.
Dr ElBaradei said a growing threat to peace was coming from proliferation and an increasing readiness to consider military action against nuclear targets regarded as suspicious.
Israel and the United States have not ruled out a last resort attack on Iran to smash its atomic programme, something critics including ElBaradei say could ignite the Middle East. The Israeli official's warning was the most explicit yet.
Iran has said it is enriching uranium only for electricity, not weapons, and that the programme will remain under UN monitoring. Iran has hindered U.N. investigations and curbs the scope of inspections.
"The willingness to cooperate on the Iranian side leaves something to be desired. We have pressing questions," Dr ElBaradei said, alluding to intelligence reports that Iran has secretly researched ways of designing a nuclear weapon.
He said the Islamic Republic, which is deeply hostile to Israel, was "sending a message to the whole world: we could build the bomb relatively soon."
Dr ElBaradei did not elaborate on this point in excerpts of his remarks released by Der Spiegel on Saturday ahead of Monday's publication.
A May 26th inspectors' report said Iran not only appeared to be withholding information needed to clarify the intelligence allegations but indicated Tehran was making significant progress developing and running centrifuges, which refine uranium.
The IAEA added Syria to its proliferation concerns in April after receiving U.S. intelligence material including photographs suggesting Damascus had almost built a nuclear reactor in secret before Israel destroyed it in an air strike last year.
Dr ElBaradei told a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors on Monday that Syria had agreed to a June 22-24 inspector visit to examine the allegations, denied by Damascus.
Diplomats said Syria had refused IAEA requests to examine three sites other than the bombed one.
Dr ElBaradei was quoted by Der Spiegelas saying the IAEA would push for access to "other places beyond the complex that was destroyed" and he expected "absolute transparency" from Syria.