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BERLIN-Threats to attack nuclear plants on suspicion they would one day make bombs could undermine the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said."Unilateral military action undermines the international treaty framework. We're standing at an historic turning point," Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Der Spiegel magazine.A senior Israeli official said on Friday an attack on Iran looked "unavoidable" because U.N. sanctions seemed unable to prevent Tehran developing nuclear technology with bomb-making potential.ElBaradei said a growing threat to peace was coming from proliferation and an increasing readiness to consider military action against nuclear targets regarded as suspicious.Israel and the United States have not ruled out a last resort attack on Iran to smash its atomic programme, something critics including ElBaradei say could ignite the Middle East. The Israeli official's warning was the most explicit yet.Iran has said it is enriching uranium only for electricity, not weapons, and that the programme will remain under U.N. monitoring. Iran has hindered U.N. investigations and curbs the scope of inspections."The willingness to cooperate on the Iranian side leaves something to be desired. We have pressing questions," ElBaradei said, alluding to intelligence reports that Iran has secretly researched ways of designing a nuclear weapon.He said the Islamic Republic, which is deeply hostile to Israel, was "sending a message to the whole world: we could build the bomb relatively soon."ElBaradei did not elaborate on this point in excerpts of his remarks released by Der Spiegel on Saturday ahead of Monday's publication.
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