By Michael Adler
VIENNA, Feb 13 2007 - The deal struck on North Korea's nuclear programme is not a model for settling the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme, analysts told AFP Tuesday.
"North Korea doesn't change anything as far as Iran is concerned," said a senior European diplomat in Vienna, where the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is headquartered.
North Korea and Iran are "different countries and they are in different circumstances," the diplomat said.
In a breakthrough deal announced in Beijing Tuesday aimed at halting its atomic weapons drive, North Korea agreed to shut down key nuclear facilities within 60 days in return for vital fuel aid.
Non-proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick said a solution to the Iranian crisis would have be on the model of Libya, which dismantled its nuclear weapons program.
"Libya agreed to renounce their nuclear program and turned over everything. North Korea is not turning over anything," said Fitzpatrick, a senior analyst at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank.
Fitzpatrick noted that North Korea has already produced nuclear weapons while Iran has not.
In fact, said Fitzpatrick, "there is a dangerous precedent here. The North Korean case shows that if you act with provocation and develop and test nuclear weapons, the superpowers will pay attention to you. That's a dangerous lesson if that's what Iran takes out of this."
Iran is defying a UN resolution calling on it to halt uranium enrichment, which makes fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but also atom bomb material when pushed to high refinement levels.
Fitzpatrick said however that while North Korea is an isolated country, "Iran wants to be part of the world. They want to be an internationally minded people."
An Asian diplomat close to the IAEA also pointed out the differences. "Iran does not need anything while North Korea needs fuel. Iran is quite confident of its own resources because of oil."
But while the deals would not be the same, "If North Korea is sorted out then pressure will grow on Iran to sort out its situation," the diplomat said.
Francois Heisbourg, a non-proliferation analyst who has served in the French government, also spoke of differences.
He said North Korea "is not a country, it is a regime," while Iran which must take into account public opinion in a varied country with many power centers.
But Heisbourg said that a nuclear settlement with North Korea would leave "Iran more conspicuous," as the last rogue state from what US President George W. Bush has labelled the "axis of evil" of Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
Meanwhile, Egypt's IAEA ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy said the North Korean case held a lesson for Israel, rather than Iran.
It showed what should be done with Israel's nuclear program, which is believed to have produced some 200 atom bombs.
"It means that you can reverse things. That is relevant as far as Israel is concerned," Ramzy said, referring to having a nuclear state remove weapons already made, as South Africa and the Ukraine did.
