How close is Iran to having nukes if even the UN’s blind watchdog is starting to acknowledge it? Iran wants nuclear weapon technology -ElBaradei.

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Iran wants the ability to build nuclear weapons to gain the reputation of a major power in the Middle East, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a BBC interview broadcast on Wednesday.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran sees nuclear weapons as an “insurance policy” against perceived threats from neighbouring countries or the United States.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election has cast doubt on Western powers’ hopes of a new dialogue with Iran over its nuclear programme, which Iran says is for producing electricity only, not atomic bombs.

“My gut feeling is that Iran definitely would like to have the technology … that would enable it to have nuclear weapons if they decided to do so,” ElBaradei told the BBC. “It wants to send a message to its neighbours, it wants to send a message to the rest of the world: yes, don’t mess with us, we can have nuclear weapons if we want it.”