October 29, 2007 (LPAC)--The International Atomic Energy Agency has seen no evidence that Iran is working on a secret nuclear weapons program, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday.

During an interview with ElBaradei on CNN's "Late Edition," CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked him, "do you believe there is a clandestine, secret nuclear weapons program right now under way in Iran?"

"We haven't seen any concrete evidence to that effect," ElBaradei responded. "We haven't received any information there is a parallel ongoing active nuclear weapon program."

Blitzer pressed on: "So, what you're saying is the United States government has not provided you hard intelligence evidence that Iran is secretly working on this kind of nuclear weapons program."

ElBaradei said there is information that there may have been some studies about possible weaponization. "But have we seen Iran having the nuclear material that can readily be used into a weapon? No. Have we seen an active weaponization program? No."

The IAEA head stressed that he is concerned about the rising level of rhetoric and the building confrontation with Iran, and he was specifically asked about President Bush's "World War II" comment. "My fear that if we continue to escalate from both sides that we will end up into a precipice, we will end up into an abyss," ElBaradei stated. "As I said, the Middle East is in a total mess, to say the least. And we cannot add fuel to the fire.... And I would hope that we should continue to stop spinning and hyping the Iranian issue because that's an issue that could have a major conflagration, and not only regionally but globally."

When he was asked about claims that Israel had bombed a suspected nuclear facility in Syria, ElBaradei said that he is very distressed about the Syrian bombing. He pointed out that there has been "chatter" for years about a possible Syrian nuclear program, coming from, for example, John Bolton. But yet, he said, the IAEA has not received any information about any clandestine nuclear activities in Syria, and now, there has been a bombing in Syria. "That to me is very distressful because we have a system. If countries have information that the country is working on a nuclear-related program, they should come to us. We have the authority to go out and investigate. But to bomb first and then ask questions later, I think it undermines the system."