Well, I think we still have to verify whatever declaration we will get and make sure that it is comprehensive and accurate. So, that would take care of the past activities.

It is suspicious, … but I try to explain to my friends in the Bush administration that suspicions are different than conclusive evidence.

Because if you have the fissile material, you are a few months away from the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, should you decide to do that. And that margin of security is very, very...

work is in progress.

We are now working with them to neutralize any activities, any programs that could have led to a nuclear weapon,

[WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.N. weapons inspectors continue to insist things are moving along quite smoothly in Iraq.] I think we’re off to a good start, … Our people are systematically building capacity in Baghdad....

I also call on Iran not to take any unilateral action that could undermine the agency inspection process at a time when the agency is making steady progress in resolving outstanding issues.

they have not told us that they need extra time.

If every country continues to exercise that right, we are going in the next 10 or 20 years to have 30 or 40 countries, in my estimation, who are virtual nuclear weapon states,

Sanctions are a bad idea. We are not facing an imminent threat. We need to lower the pitch.

I am still very much hopeful that in the next week an agreement could be reached.

I hope we will find some way to go out from this situation.

Due process, therefore, must take its course before the Secretariat (the IAEA administration) is able to submit a detailed report.

The Iraqi authorities are aware that they don’t have much wiggle room, that the international community is united in its resolve that Iraq must prove that it has no weapons of mass destruction.

The ball is very much in Iraq’s court,

The message … coming from the Security Council is that time is very critical, … and that we need to show progress in our report, which will be due on the 14th of this month.

For the last three years we have been doing intensive verification in Iran, and even after three years I am not yet in a position to make a judgment on the peaceful nature of the...

This is simply a new phase of diplomacy, an extension of diplomatic efforts to find a solution.

The best protection against nuclear weapons, and the only way to prevent future Hiroshimas and Nagasakis, is to bring about an end to all nuclear weapons.

It also makes it very clear that should any serious failures come to light in the future, these will be taken by the board with the seriousness that it deserves.

We still need to assure ourselves through access to documents, individuals (and) locations that we have seen all that we ought to see and that there is nothing fishy, if you like, about the program.

We have seen issues in Iran that we need to understand before we can say that we are satisfied that all activities in Iran are exclusively for peaceful purposes.

Escalation is not going to help a situation that is highly volatile in the Middle East.

I hope everybody will go back to the negotiating table. I’ve always said this is the only way forward.