El Baradei: Attack on Iran would create Middle East Fireball

Juan Cole reports on a forceful statement by Mohamed El Baradei of the IAEA on the Iran situation, made during in interview with Al-Arabiya. This is very important, and worth copying.

"I don't believe that what I see in Iran today is a current, grave and urgent danger. If a military strike is carried out against Iran at this time ... it would make me unable to continue my work . . ."

"A military strike, in my opinion, would be worse than anything possible. It would turn the region into a fireball . . ."

"If you do a military strike, it will mean that Iran, if it is not already making nuclear weapons, will launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons with the blessing of all Iranians, even those in the West."

This quote strikes me as very important. Yet the U.S. press is not giving it any importance. I could not find the story on the NYTimes, LATimes, Chicago Tribune, or Washington Post sites. AP had a story from the same interview that cited his comments on Syria. Google shows about ten citations in the international press.