Iran denies UN access to nuclear sites

The nuclear agency was denied access to a military site where it suspects the testing are being carried out but Iran pledged more talks in future.

Vienna

A visit to Iran by UN inspectors probing Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons activities failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Tehran denying access to a key military site, a nuclear agency said yesterday.

“Intensive efforts were made to reach agreement on a document facilitating the clarification of unresolved issues in connection with Iran’s nuclear programme,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement. “Unfortunately, agreement was not reached on this document.”

The team requested access both during this visit and during a first trip in late January to the Parchin military site, near Tehran, where it believes explosives testing was carried out, but Iran “did not grant permission,” it said.

“It is disappointing that Iran did not accept our request to visit Parchin during the first or second meetings,” IAEA director general Yukiya Amano said in the statement. “We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached.”

No developments
The statement gave no further details and did not say whether another visit was planned.
Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was quoted by the Iranian news agency ISNA as saying the talks had been intensive and covered “cooperation and mutual understanding between Iran and the IAEA.” “These negotiations will continue in the future,” Mr Soltanieh said.

Iran is “not seeking an atomic weapon,” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said. “We are not after an atomic weapon. We want to break the supremacy (of the world powers) that relies on nuclear weapons. God willing, the nation will reach this goal,” he told a meeting with Iranian nuclear scientists, according to an official government statement.