The UN’s toothless nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, favors doing nothing about Iran’s Manhattan Project: ElBaradei wary of taking Iran to Security Council.

JERUSALEM, July 8 (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday he was wary of reporting Iran’s two-decade cover-up of its atomic programme to the U.N. Security Council because it could make the situation even worse.

The United States accuses Tehran of developing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic power programme and has long called on the board of governors of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency to take Tehran to the Security Council — which might then pose economic sanctions.

Iran has acknowledged concealing for 18 years nuclear facilities and activities that could be related to a weapons programme, though says it is not pursuing an atom bomb.

But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told a group of academics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that he did not think it was a good idea to take Iran to the Security Council.

“You are running the risk that the Security Council might not act and therefore the situation would exacerbate. And you run the risk that Iran might opt out of the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and you have another North Korea,” ElBaradei said.