Ebb tide.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), condemned the recently uncovered nuclear activities of both Iran and Libya as a violation of the non-proliferation regime. Iran spent the week lobbying IAEA board members to block criticism of its failure to tell the agency of plans and parts for more sophisticated uranium-enriching centrifuges than it had previously owned up to, and for covering up past experiments with polonium, a material that can help trigger a nuclear bomb. The IAEA is most concerned about traces of militarily useful highly-enriched uranium found in Iran: contamination from imported machinery, claims Iran, though inspectors have yet to be given permission to take samples in Pakistan, the suspected place of origin. Meanwhile, sample analysis suggests that Iran may also have bought some enriched uranium on the black market. Iran's nuclear programme seems more and more to resemble those of Libya and North Korea: all bought from the same Pakistan-centred supply network.